A/N: Secondary pairing has been decided. Dylan/Rommie…though I'm not too keen on a happy ending for these too. It just seems so impossible, we'll see I guess. Sorry, no Trance/Harper, they're just too good of friends for me to pair them up romantically! It didn't seem right! Besides…Harper has enough to worry about already.
Chapter Nine: Outburst
Rommie's artificial brown eyes traced over Dylan's figure over and over, registering his vital signs and memorizing the sound of his heartbeat.
"Rommie, you're not helping," said Dylan gently, you're supposed to be filling me in on what happened.
"I know," Rommie straightened her posture, "But..."
She took a moment to glance around at her surroundings. Here she was again. With him, in his quarters, unable to speak without stammering over her words. She was fighting a war inside herself, debating over telling him how things had really happened, or stretching the truth a little to suit her liking.
"Rommie," Dylan was growing impatient with her silence, "I order you to—"
"Okay, so it was a normal day and Beka and I were in the Mess Hall making fun of Harper and then the Nietzscheans attacked and we were all in Command trying to fight them and then they used their secret weapon on us which made you all go brain dead—except me of course—and so I stood there for hours not knowing what to do and then you woke up and you were helping me up but then you dropped me and told Beka she was gorgeous and then you fainted and then we took you Med Deck and then when you woke up again you called Beka enchantingly beautiful and then you made out with her for hours and then Trance knocked you out and then you woke up again and now Rhade's in love with Beka and Beka's in love with you and you're in love with Bekaand of course I'm jealous of Beka and Trance is trying to figure out what's wrong with everyone and somehow, someway, THIS IS ALL HARPER'S FAULT!" Rommie screamed out one long paragraph, which was quite easy seeing as she was an android and didn't need to breathe.
Dylan stared, with wide, wide eyes. Had Rommie actually said that? He examined the avatar's face closely. Her skin was flushed and her hair was falling into her eyes which seemed to stare out into a blank nothingness.
"Rommie..." he said her name slowly and brought his hands to her shoulders.
Rommie's eyes snapped up to look into his and suddenly, she felt her entire body go numb.
"D-Dylan, I'm sorry...I didn't m-mean to..." she stammered, unable to accept that she'd just yelled out all her frustration into his face.
"Rommie," Dylan repeated and she fell silent, "One, I'm not sure I'm in love with Beka, two, please don't ever do that again, three, I promise you, Harper will pay for this."
"You don't love Beka?" Rommie blurted out.
"Uh..." Dylan was taken slightly aback, "Well Rommie...I..."
"Am I interrupting something?" asked Beka, appearing beside them, neither Captain nor android had noticed her come in.
"Uh..."
"Not at all," Rommie said, quickly gathering her wits, "Go ahead Beka, he's all yours."
Dylan didn't like the way she said that, but he didn't have time to say anything about it, Rommie was gone before he could open his mouth.
"We..." Beka rocked back and forth on her heels, "We need to talk."
"I think so..." Dylan shrugged.
"So...you and I...we..." Beka's voice trailed off, she hadn't thought that this would have been so hard.
"Yeah..." he looked at her and tried to wrap his mind around the current situation.
"Dylan, I'm confused," Beka stated flatly.
"That makes two of us."
"Do you know...do you know why...why..."
"Not a clue."
Great. Back to square one. They stood there in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like days, and it might have been, neither Dylan nor Beka really knew for sure. Suddenly, something else struck Dylan. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, folded envelope.
"What's that?" asked Beka, walking towards him and looking over his shoulder.
"I think Trance dropped it before the Nietzscheans attacked," said Dylan whilst tearing open the envelope.
As his eyes scanned the letter, he felt his stomach drop in shock. He quickly crumpled up the letter and shoved it back into his pocket.
"What was it?" asked Beka, frowning at his actions.
"Nothing," Dylan replied and began to walk away briskly.
"Dylan!" Beka called and followed him, "What did the letter say?"
"Just forget it..."
"Dylan...what did it say?" she stepped in front of him, blocking his path, "I saw my name on the paper and I demand that you tell me what it was!"
"You don't want to know," Dylan said.
"Yes I do!" Beka pounced on him, reaching for his pocket.
"Beka!" Dylan lost his balance and fell backwards.
And of course, she fell on top of him. However, while Dylan was quite well aware of the awkwardness of the situation, Beka barely noticed.
"Where is it..." she grumbled in frustration as she fumbled around in his pocket, "Ah! Found it!"
She settled herself on his chest and unfolded the crumpled paperball.
"Um...Beka?" Dylan said in a meek voice.
"Shh!" Beka clamped a hand down over his mouth.
Dylan lay his head down against the cool floor when he realized that he wasn't going anywhere until Beka read the damn letter. And wasn't this a sight to be seen, a Captain lying completely helpless underneath his female first officer who seemed quite comfortable with her position up on his chest.
Beka's eyes were as wide as saucers by the time she finished reading the letter. She sat up and her eyes skimmed over the page over and over.
"I..." she was speechless.
She looked down and noticed that Dylan was staring up at her with a pleading look in his eyes. With a little gasp of surprise, she withdrew her hand from his lips and rolled off him clumsily.
"Thank you," Dylan said, sitting up, "Now do you see why I didn't want you to read it?"
"I...I...I didn't write this!" Beka exclaimed, her eyes meeting Dylan's.
"Yeah...I figured that much," Dylan replied, flexing his shoulder, "I'd know that messy writing anywhere."
Slowly, realization sank into Beka's mind.
"HARPER!"
"Trancie! You gotta help me!She's gonna come and...and...and...ah!" Harper wrapped his arms around Trance's waist from behind her.
"Harper," Trance placed her hands awkwardly over his and tried to pry them off herself.
"You!" yelled Beka as she stomped into Command, rage burning in her eyes.
"SHE'S GONNA EAT ME!" Harper screamed so loudly that Trance had to cover her ears.
Beka was across the room in a single bound and looked quite ready to tear Harper's skin off his body.
"Now Beka, try to calm down," Trance tried to reach out to the blonde woman but was held back as a quivering Harper lowered his grip to around her legs.
"Calm down! CALM DOWN! Do you have any idea what that smart ass little engineer has done?" Beka exclaimed, her body trembling with anger.
"Okay Beka...tell me what Harper did," Trance sighed while trying to peel Harper's fingers from her thighs.
"That little devil wrote a love letter from me to...to...to someone!" Beka yelled.
"And this has made you upset because..." Trance inquired.
Beka froze. Why was she so angry again?
"Um..." Beka's voice trailed off.
Trance smiled triumphantly and she looked down at Harper, "You can let go now Harper, I do believe that Beka is not planning to eat you any longer."
"O-okay...if y-you say so T-Tran...cie..." Harper stammered and slinked off to hide behind a console.
Beka was still at a loss for words, her mind was blank. She couldn't remember why she was angry at Harper. None of this made any sense.
"Perhaps something else is bothering you that has triggered this emotional outbreak?" Trance suggested softly, "Or perhaps, someone else?"
"You know Trance, you could be right...well, you usually are, but I'm really unsure of everything right now, and I need to sit down before...before..."
"Beka?" Trance's eyes widened.
Beka would have fallen over, if a very strong, muscular pair of arms had not suddenly swept her off her feet.
Apparently, Telemachus Rhade had decided to take his chances with the second option.
A/N: Okay…probably some major Beka/Rhade in the next chapter…which might possibly be the last.