Author's note: Why do I only get inspiration for every other chapter? Grr…
Nicole stormed down the corridor and knocked firmly on the door. Lister answered it.
"Ah, Nicole. Thank God you're here, maybe you can talk to Rimmer. He's been in a right state all night."
Nicole felt a pang of guilt, "Really?"
"Oh, yeah! He just sat up and stared at the wall all night. He denied it, but I definitely saw tears. And he won't tell me what's wrong. Do you know?"
"Got a fair idea," she said with a small smile, "Can I talk to him?"
"Sure. I'll get out your way."
He slipped away and Nicole stepped into the room. When she saw Rimmer she couldn't help but gasp. He really was in a state. His face was tinged with red, his eyes were swollen and tearful, and he was gripping his blanket so tight she wouldn't have been surprised if he had ripped a hole in it.
"Rimmer," she asked nervously, not wanting to upset him any more, "Have you seen Gemma?"
Rimmer shook his head robotically.
"What?" Nicole yelled making Rimmer jump, "You haven't seen her at all?"
"No," Rimmer spoke for the first time since he had said goodbye to Nicole the previous evening, "You told me to stay away from her, remember?"
"Oh, God," Nicole started to panic, "Then where is she?"
"Is she not in her room?"
"No. I went to see her this morning and she'd gone. No note, nothing."
Rimmer suddenly leapt up, "OK, I'll help you find her. Unless…I mean, do you want me to?"
"Yes!" Nicole cried, "Any help is welcome!"
"OK. I think I've got an idea of where she is. But we need to go see a few people first."
They set off down the maze of winding corridors until they reached a door which Rimmer knocked on. Liz and Bex answered.
"Rimmer!" Liz exclaimed, "What happened last night? Why was tutoring cancel-"
"Er, that's not important," Rimmer interrupted before Nicole got any more information she could use to fire at him, "Have you seen Gemma anywhere?"
"Nope," Bex replied, "Not since Saturday."
"Damn…" Rimmer said.
"Why, what's happened?" Liz asked.
"She's gone missing," Nicole replied.
"What?" Liz and Bex cried in unison.
"Can you help us?" Rimmer asked, "Can you go to Laura's room whilst we go to Robyn's?"
"Of course!" Bex replied, "Come on, Liz." They sprinted off in one direction whilst Rimmer and Nicole went another.
"You really were just trying to help, weren't you?" Nicole asked him as they made their way, "You really do care about these kids don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Rimmer replied. Before Nicole could say anything else they had reached Robyn's room.
"Rimmer!" Robyn said excitedly, "What are you doing here? Who's this? Oh…wait…is she…?"
"Sort of, yes," Rimmer said quickly, drawing confused looks from Nicole. He ignored them and moved on, "Robyn, have you seen Gemma lately?"
"Not recently, sorry."
"Oh God," Nicole said faintly. For the first time she was actually feeling genuinely scared.
"How do you know Gem?" Robyn asked Nicole.
"She's my daughter, and she's gone missing!"
Robyn didn't know which piece of information she should be more shocked about. Suddenly, Bex, Liz and Laura came running up behind them.
"I heard Gemma's disappeared!" Laura said, out-of-breath.
"She doesn't know where she is either," Liz explained.
"Oh my God!" Nicole whimpered, "Then where the smeg is she?"
"Don't worry," Rimmer said putting his arm around her, "We'll find her, I promise."
"Where would she go?" Laura wondered aloud.
"Well, she wouldn't go anywhere crowded, would she?" Rimmer guessed and the others shook their heads, "So she's probably somewhere fairly deserted…"
"And with a good paper supply," Robyn finished, "you know how she loves to write, especially when she's got something angsty or upsetting to write about. She's like Laura."
Laura nodded agreement.
"Attention, attention!" Holly announced over the thousands of speakers that littered Red Dwarf, "Starbug 2 has been stolen! Repeat, Starbug 2 has been stolen! All military personnel to stations!"
The search party looked amongst themselves for a second then dashed off to the docking bays.
"We'll never get a craft," Laura said as they approached the door, "It'd be pushing it a bit for one qualified person to take five stowaways, even if they were registered."
"Well we've got to try!" Nicole said.
"What if Gemma hasn't actually taken that Starbug?" Robyn asked, "That's a lot of time wasted!"
"Can anyone think of anything else?" Rimmer challenged. He was greeted by a silence, "Right."
Nicole dashed through the door to the Ground Control booth and got permission to take a Blue Midget.
"Could I take some people with me?" she asked.
"'ow many?" the Ground Controller asked tetchily, twiddling her hair impatiently.
"Five."
"Five?"
"I've got a big family," Nicole lied.
"Alright, I need their names, their relation to ya, and their reason for flight."
"Er, well, there's Arnold Rimmer he's…my…husband," she said going ever so slightly red, "crew member 168. Then my four daughters, Robyn, Liz, Bex and…er…oh my God…Laura!" she said triumphantly.
"Bloody 'ell!" the ground controller exclaimed, "You 'ave been busy ain't ya!"
Nicole rubbed her forehead nervously, "Could I please have the flight pass now?"
"'ang on! I need their reason for flight."
"Oh, well, er…they, er, they need to go to Mimas to, um…visit a sick grandmother. And it's rather urgent, we're all extremely concerned, so could you hurry it along a little?"
"Why didn't ya just go on the shuttle ten minutes ago?"
"Oh, my husband can't stand public transport," Nicole said quickly, "too claustrophobic."
The Ground Controller stared at her, mouth slightly open, "So, 'e's extremely concerned about this sick grandmother, but 'e won't get on a shuttle to go see 'er 'cos it's too claustrophobic?" she asked incredulously.
Nicole realised there was no explanation that would sound feasible so she simply said, "Yes."
She grabbed the flight pass out of the shocked Ground Controller's hand and ran off.
"Blue Midget 6," she read off the pass to the others when she found them, "Bay 16, let's go."
They scrambled into the few seats aboard the tiny craft and Nicole hit the power.
Meanwhile, Rimmer grabbed a microphone and attempted contact.
"Blue Midget 6 to Starbug 2. Do you read me?"
"Blue Midget 6 to Starbug 2. Do you read me?"
Gemma eyed the radio thoughtfully; that was the fifth signal she'd received from Rimmer. And she wanted to speak to him more than anything, but she just knew that her mother would be with him, and she didn't even want to see her, let alone talk to her. She kept a steady grip on the controls and veered slightly to the left towards a blue planet.
"Blue Midget 6 to Starbug 2. Do you read me?"
Piloting was a breeze, Gemma thought to herself. She casually flicked a stray hair from her forehead to behind her ear.
"Blue Midget 6 to-"
"What?" she yelled irritably, grabbing the mike.
"Gemma, thank God!" Rimmer breathed, "Are you OK?"
"I'm fine," Gemma said brightly, "And I'll be even better when I'm away from you and Mum."
"I know it all seems bad at the moment," Rimmer said calmly, "but it'll get better, I promise. Remember how you were when we first met? Nervous, shy, an underachiever…"
"This better be going somewhere," Gemma said sulkily.
"But you worked past that. You've grown up a lot. You've even taught me a thing or two."
Gemma's face contorted itself into a smile. She couldn't help it.
"Please come back and we can sort all this out properly," Rimmer continued, "You really mean a lot to me and I'd be beside myself if you got hurt out there. You…you're like a daughter to me, you really are."
"Don't say that," Gemma said bitterly, "She might start getting ideas. Get pregnant by another guy."
"Gem!" Nicole snapped.
"Oh, go away."
"Please listen to me-"
"I won't!" Gemma screamed, "Why should I? Rimmer was the best thing that happened in my life and you drove him away!"
"Gemma-" Rimmer said again, but Gemma interrupted.
"Leave me alone!"
"I want to help you!" Rimmer said, raising his voice slightly.
"Help me? That's rich! You're not even prepared to fight for me!"
"What?"
"Why didn't you tell her that you'd only just found out about this whole mess? She'd have understood! She might even have let you off!" her voice lowered almost incomprehensibly, "She's trusting like that."
Back on Blue Midget Nicole had put her hand on Rimmer's arm, "Is that true?"
Rimmer nodded and looked at the floor. Nicole cupped his chin and brought his head back up so she could make eye-contact with him, "Why didn't you say?"
"I dunno," Rimmer mumbled, "Just…didn't seem important at the time."
They stared into each other's eyes in a deadly silence until Robyn screamed, "KISS HIM, FOOL!"
Nicole jerked back into reality, "What?"
"Can you not see it?" Bex said, "Can you really not see it?"
"See what?"
"He loves you!" the four girls chorused.
Another silence.
"Well?" Robyn said, "Are you going to?"
"What?" Rimmer asked.
"Tell her."
Nicole was trying hard to cover up her giggles. Rimmer took one look at her and also started laughing. It somehow made it easier.
"Nikki, I love you. Always have, always will."
"Ditto," Nicole said and wrapped her arms around his waist. Liz put her hands over Robyn's eyes as they kissed.
Gemma folded her arms huffily. Having Rimmer and her mum declare they were in love made it very difficult to be angry at them.
"I suppose this means I have to come back," she said, a smile creeping sneakily across her face.
"Yes, it does," Rimmer said hugging Nicole close to him, not daring to let go unless she was pulled away again. He felt incredible. He was part of a family. A proper family. He'd never had that feeling before and looking around at Nicole nuzzling into him and at Robyn, Liz, Laura and Bex smiling up at him he decided he really, really liked the feeling!
Pity it would only last a few more seconds.
Gemma, through her euphoria, lost control of Starbug 2 and crashed into the blue planet's surface.
A/N: Another bloody blue planet! What's wrong with me? (Check chapter 7 of 'Lives of Lister' and chapter 12 of 'Love' if you don't know what I'm on about.)