Part 13

Beka had heard enough, the screams had been constant for nearly five minutes and she couldn't bear to hear Harper in such pain, anymore. The screams had fuelled her on, as she finally struggled enough to catch some slack with her restraints, she had been rubbing the rope against a rough section of metal and it had finally given way.

Untying the rope around her feet, Beka stood up and located a panel in the deck plating that she easily removed. Too many times she had found herself trapped on her own ship by wannabe ship stealers, that she was now prepared as she lifted out a weapon and charged it up.

The guard on watch was down in less than five seconds and the second one patrolling the corridor fell soon after. Beka knew the third hired hand would be with Richter, the fourth and final goon would be with Gerentex, so she headed towards the place where she still heard Harper's screams, dreading what she would seen, having never heard him quite so distressed before.

Gerentex stopped his work immediately on hearing the weapon charge behind him, and the fourth goon soon offered his hands in surrender as he backed away from holding Harper's head.

"Beka?" Gerentex questioned.

"Move away from Harper," Beka ordered, and tried to ignore the blood she saw, and the large amount of it, but Gerentex was in no hurry. "I said move away!" she yelled with force, ready to kill if she had to, and this time Gerentex appeared to pick up on her mood, and moved aside. "You," Beka gestured to the goon. "How much is he paying you? Would you tie him up if I promise double and your life?"

Without another thought the goon retrieved some bandages and immediately secured Gerentex.

"Good, now you're on my side, you do as I say and I won't kill you!" Beka stressed, wanting to go to Harper's side but feeling she needed to tidy things up first. "Go get your friends, take your ship and leave, don't ever come back and I'll transmit your payment once you are three light years away, ok?"

"What about him?" the man asked, gesturing to a panicked looking Gerentex.

"Leave him, I'll deal with him," Beka stated. "Now go!"

The man wasted no time in leaving, and Beka waited a moment before hearing the familiar sounds of people leaving her ship. Once she was sure the hired hands were following her plan, she turned to Harper and instantly caught her breath at the sight. Blood literally poured from his forced open mouth, so much blood, and she moved to his side.

"Harper?" Beka hurriedly spoke, seeing the tears that also escaped his eyes.

Harper could only grunt, and clearly in pain he was trying to remain focused but failing as his eyes opened and closed rapidly. Seeing the device that was forcing his mouth open, Beka worked quickly to remove it and as she did so, she could see the damage Gerentex had done to the inside of Harper's mouth, a gaping hole towards the back of his mouth where a tooth had once been, but now filled with blood.

"What's happened?" Richter's voice interrupted Beka's fixation on Harper's bloodied mouth.

"Pulled a fricking tooth," Beka responded, and she glanced at Gerentex with contempt before rushing over and grabbing his jaw. "How about I return the favour, huh?" Beka screamed in the rats face.

Gerentex was trembling in Beka's hold now, until the doctor calmly moved Beka away. "That won't help Harper," he spoke softly.

Beka swiftly brought her hand back, and then delivered a fierce blow across the Nightsider's face knocking him out.

"That might not have helped, but I sure as hell feel better," Beka seethed, before returning her attention back to Harper. She immediately set about releasing her friend from the restraints, and Harper responded immediately as he began to move from the cot immediately the restraints were lifted. "Ok, Harper, it's ok," Beka tried to assure him but Harper was too distraught and worked up to listen to her, as he pushed past her and blindly scrambled away.

Beka reached out and grabbed Harper, preventing him going too far in his distressed state. He struggled for a moment before Beka's soothing voice reached him, as she continued to assure him that he was safe now.

"Doc, do you have anything you can give him?" Beka then asked, she couldn't imagine the pain Harper was in but her words caused him to start struggling again, making it clear that he didn't want anything from the doctor. "I need to calm him down," Beka offered to Richter, knowing Harper was too hysterical at that moment to listen to her. "Maybe you can secure our guest, and then get something to eat or something, give us some time?" she suggested and Richter slowly nodded his head to agree to the plan.

"Come on, Seamus," Beka encouraged her friend to move and he seemed to relax slightly as they left the makeshift medical area. "You need to be cleaned up, so off to the shower room," she stated and Harper didn't argue, and she realised that he hadn't said anything at all, just lately that seemed to be a trend with her friend when he became distressed, shutting himself away into his own mind.

They reached the shower room, and Beka encouraged Harper to sit on the deck with his back against the wall, whilst she got a clean cloth and some water to begin cleaning him up with. The warm water soon turned a distinctive red colour, as Beka cleaned up Harper's face and neck, the front of his shirt now stained by his own blood. In silence Beka retrieved some cold drinking water and brought the glass to Harper's lips and he eagerly took some sips, then gulps and Beka saw the water once again turning red the more he drank.

"Are you ok?" Beka then asked, once she put the glass to one side, she then smirked with sadness, unable to believe her own question. "How can I even ask that, how can you be ok?" she then stated in Harper's silence. Her hand now absently stroked Harper's face, his sightless eyes stared numbly ahead, and she wasn't even sure that he was acknowledging her anymore.

"I keep telling you that things will get better, Seamus, but they keep getting worse," she frowned and then moved to sit next to Harper, with a sigh she let he head fall back against the wall. "I don't know how much more of this I can take, you joke about the universe hating you, well I'm beginning to believe it," she stated, but there was no amusement in her tone, as she brought her hand to her face and rubbed her temple. "We should let the doc check your mouth, there's a lot of blood," she idly remarked now, sounding despondent.

"No," Harper finally spoke.

"How do you do it?" Beka then asked quietly.

"Do what?"

Beka sighed without answering, and she was now fighting to keep the tears in check, but her eyes were rapidly beginning to water. She brought her hand up to her face once more, desperate to hold it together but her emotions had reached breaking point and she wasn't sure if she could carry on. They had lost everything, and she was being forced to continue watching her friend suffer.

"Don't cry, Beka, you know I hate it when you cry," Harper spoke evenly, without emotion.

"What the hell have we done to this universe, Seamus?" Beka then asked angrily, still struggling to contain her emotions.

"It's me, not you," Harper offered, and he reached over to grab the glass needing to cleanse his mouth of the bloody taste.

"It's not you, Harper it's this crappy universe, the one that has taken everything away from us, taken your sight, tried to take your freedom, and makes shit happen on a daily basis," Beka stormed. "I don't think I can keep watching you suffer, I can't keep trying to tell you things will be ok when it seems at every stop there's someone ready to kill you!" she stressed, as the tears began to fall.

Beka felt Harper's hand on her face, as his thumb wiped away her tears with care. She narrowed her eyes, seeing the strange expression on his face as he did so. "What?" Beka asked, confused and then he began to laugh, at first just a smirk until it turned into a full on laugh, he was teasing her.

"If you could see yourself right now, Beka," Harper offered with a smile.

"Harper?" Beka suddenly grabbed his arms and she manoeuvred herself in front of him, she then looked at the glass he had picked up, before looking back at him. "You can see?"

"Not exactly, it's kind of blurred, not picking out colours too well, finer details but I see 'something', I can see enough of you to know your sat there, where your face is," Harper answered.

"Why didn't you say?"

"It was more fun this way, and I needed cheering up," Harper shrugged, not looking away from her face, as if looking at it for the first time. "Sorry it was at your expense but when I squint, I can just about make out your expression and that was priceless," he smiled genuinely.

"I don't believe it, after just one treatment?" Beka gasped almost before she began to finally smile in joy.

"Needed some good news, right, boss?" Harper frowned, and then partially grimaced as his hand felt along his jaw.

"Let the doctor give you something for the pain," Beka spoke with care.

"He left me like that, Beka," Harper now seethed, his anger returning. "I lost that tooth to the stupid rat because of him, there's no way he's coming near me again!"

"But your sight, it's returning, you have to let him finish his work," Beka stressed, still holding Harper's arms.

Harper was already shaking his head. "My sight," he began, his voice shaking with both anger and fear. "It began to return just as that damn rat faced freak began to start pulling," he explained with venom. "It returned enough for me to see just a fraction of the joy on Gerentex's face to my pain."

All the while as Harper spoke, Beka comforted him and was soon holding him close to her, as they adopted a now familiar pose for a while. After a few minutes had passed without word, Harper quickly got to his feet, and moved to the basin and ran the water, cleaning out his mouth and freshening up as he ran his hands over his face.

Without any word, he headed to the exit and Beka now got to her feet. "Harper, wait up, where are you going?"

"I need to see someone," Harper returned, too quickly and angrily for Beka's liking. She hurried to her feet knowing she had to stop Harper, before he did something to make a bad situation worse.

"Whoa, hold up," Beka began to run, to catch him up and managed to pull him back, as she pushed him gently into the bulkhead to stop him. "If you're planning anything, Harper, stop right now," she warned, seeing the anger in the engineer's blue eyes. "I know how you think, and doing anything to either Gerentex or the doctor will not help matters."

Harper took some deep breaths, and slowly managed to relax knowing that Beka had stopped him from doing something stupid. Beka stood before him now just observing his reactions, and her slightly taller frame easily surrounded him. Finally he looked at her, through blurry vision he could make out her shape at least, but it still was too dark to recognise colour, or see her expression from this distance.

"You should rest," Beka then suggested fondly. "I'll see if we have anything in the medical cabinet to help you sleep, and to kill the pain?" she added.

The pain was more an ache now, as he felt his jaw simply throbbing around the area where his tooth had been pulled. Harper sighed, and felt the desire suddenly to sleep as Beka had suggested, but he felt too worked up to be able to unaided, so nodded his head to Beka's offer of medical assistance.

She led Harper through to his bunk, before leaving him to retrieve some painkillers. Alone finally, Harper sat on the edge of his bunk with his head in his hands. In what seemed like a flash Harper's eyes suddenly focused enough for him to make out the deck flooring, and he jumped with panic before the image blurred to a jumbled mess again, then a sharp pain hit his eyes and as he looked up he saw the bunk opposite in a flash of vision that just as quickly blurred again, but after a few moments he felt himself begin to shake, as his breathing quickened.

Trying to regain control, Harper rubbed his temples, having not noticed the headache he now seemed to have. Getting to his feet, Harper tried not to let the shock of seeing the real world again affect him like it was, but he was feeling hot and he reached out to the opposite bunk to steady himself, feeling dizzy suddenly, as a couple more flashes of vision hit him, disorientating him. Even though the light was low, Harper now had to close his eyes as shooting pain seemed to hit him, and his eyes began to rapidly water. Adding to his confusion Harper then felt hands on his arms pushing him back, until he was encouraged to lie down on the bunk that he was now pushed against.

"Beka?" Harper questioned, about to ask her for help, he wanted the flashes of vision to stop, he desperately needed to rest and to get use to the idea of the seeing world again, but a hand suddenly covered his mouth. Harper immediately snapped alert, and he began to struggle.

TBC