Okay, so originally I'd planned to post a different chapter before this one, but this one got done first.

Heads up: This is where the story starts to skip around a bit because I'm doing what you guys requested :D

To me, this chapter sounds a bit... I don't know. Jumpy? But I still thought it came out pretty good.

CMR Rosa wanted to see how Tabitha and Mrs. Hawkins first met, and I just randomly wrote that whole romantic scene thing at the end, so I combined them.

Enjoy!


"I want you to meet someone," Jim announced to Tabitha as he pulled her through swarms of people until he found his mother. "Tabitha, this is my mom. Mom, this is Tabitha Alexander."

"Hello," Tabitha greeted shyly.

"Oh. Hello," Mrs. Hawkins said, slightly taken aback. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too."

"Tabitha and I worked together on the ship," he explained.

"I see..." his mother said, glancing knowingly between the two of them.

"She's staying with us at Doc's."

"Did you ask Delbert if that was alright?"

"Yes, ma'am," Jim answered.

Mrs. Hawkins blinked in shock. "Did you just refer to me as 'ma'am'?"

Jim chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah."

"Well... I certainly want to hear how that..."

Tabitha didn't catch the rest of the sentence. Suddenly, she felt like she was underwater. Why was everything spinning?

"Whoa..." she mumbled through her dizziness.

"Hey," Jim's forehead creased in concern. "You okay?"

Tabitha swayed slightly and Jim grabbed her arms to keep her steady. "Yeah," she lied. "I'm fine."

Dr. Doppler showed up and began talking to Mrs. Hawkins, but Jim didn't take his eyes off Tabitha. She was not fine, and he knew it. Anyone who looked at her would know it.

"Jim..." she began quietly.

"What?" he questioned.

Tabitha couldn't reply. Her vision had gone blurry, and her head was drowning in nothingness. As her knee's crumpled beneath her and her eyes fluttered shut, she had just enough awareness in her to hear several voices, including Jim's, cry out her name, and a strong arm catch her before she hit the pavement.


Jim climbed out of the GalactiCab first, then turned around to pick up Tabitha.

"I can still walk, Jim. I'm fine," she protested.

"Right, that's why you collapsed less than five minutes after we got off the ship," Jim teased her as he headed up the path towards Dr. Doppler's house.

"I did not collapse! I… stumbled."

"Stumbled? Yeah, I guess if you call nearly blacking out and your knees giving out from under you 'stumbling'," Jim laughed as he opened the front door.

As he stepped inside the doorway, their laughter abruptly ended as they had the same realization; there was only one other time when a guy carried a girl over the threshold of a house…

They looked at each other and, for no good reason, Tabitha felt herself start to blush. Jim cleared his throat and carried her into the living room.

"Y-you should rest," he told her as he laid her down on one of the couches and sat next to her. "I can't believe you haven't eaten or slept in nearly two days."

"I forgot."

"How do you 'forget' those?" Jim laughed as he tossed a blanket over her.

"I-I... well… well you haven't eaten or slept either!" she countered.

"Wrong. I ate while you were packing."

"Oh."

They were interrupted by Dr. Doppler stumbling through the door trying to manage all of their bags at once. Jim stood up to help him, catching him by the elbow just before he toppled over.

"Oh, thank you, Jim," he sighed as Jim grabbed a couple of the bags and placed them in a chair in the living room. The doctor turned around to face Tabitha. "Well, you seem to be doing alright."

"Yes, I'm fine. Um… thank you again for letting me stay here."

"Not at all."

"Where are you going?" Tabitha asked Jim as he started to head out of the room.

"I'm going to make us some food before you faint again," he joked. "You rest."

Tabitha rolled her eyes, but gave up on trying to argue. She flopped down on the cushions and, in a matter of seconds, was out like a light.


The next time she awoke, it was to the feel of a soft hand against her face. It was a touch she hadn't felt in years, a mother's touch...

"Tabitha?" Mrs. Hawkins questioned.

Tabitha's eyes blinked open to see Jim's mother sitting on the edge of the couch beside her.

"Oh, good," she began. "I was beginning to think you were ill."

"No," Tabitha yawned. "Just very, very tired."

"Well, if you're hungry, Jim's made us all dinner." She laughed. "There's a sentence I never thought I would say... I don't know how much Jim has told you about himself, but he - "

"He's told me everything," Tabitha answered. "Well, maybe not everything, but I know he wasn't exactly the kind of boy you'd find volunteering to make dinner."

"No, he wasn't," Mrs. Hawkins smiled. "And yet, he is now." She glanced towards the kitchen door, then turned back to the girl. "What happened to him on this trip?"

"Oh, come on, mom," Jim laughed as he entered the room with a plate of food, followed by Morph. "You act as if I've never done anything nice before."

"I didn't say that," she laughed as she stood up. "I'm just glad to see you so... happy."

"Yeah, well, I'm glad to be so happy." He hugged his mom, then turned to Tabitha. "How do you feel?"

She shrugged. "Tired."

Morph acted out a huge yawn and fell against Tabitha's chest to go to sleep.

"Well, here," Jim said, taking over the seat where his mother had been moments ago. "I wasn't sure if you were well enough to get up, so I brought you some food."

"Oh. Thank - "

"FOOD!" Morph interrupted Tabitha. "Food! Food! Food!" He quickly grabbed a slice of bread and rushed away before Jim could grab him.

"Should we go after him? Her? That?" Mrs. Hawkins questioned.

Tabitha giggled. "No, he'll be fine."

"Can you sit up?" Jim asked her. Tabitha nodded and pushed herself up slowly.

"Okay," Mrs. Hawkins said, placing her hands on her hips. "What is this?"

"What is what?" Jim asked. She raised her eyebrows and glanced pointedly between the two of them. "Oh!"

"Oh, we're..." Tabitha began. "Um..."

The couple stared at each other questioningly, unsure of how to answer.

"Oh, okay," the mother began knowingly. "Well, I think I'll take some food to Delbert and B.E.N."

"B.E.N. is with Delbert?" Tabitha asked in surprise as Mrs. Hawkins left the room.

"Yeah," Jim chuckled. "They get along pretty well, amazingly. B.E.N. has a lot of questions about what's happened over the last 100 years, and Doc - well, you know how he is."

"Good point."

"Yeah. Um... are you hungry?"

Tabitha opened her mouth to answer, but a loud growl from her stomach beat her to it. She blushed.

Jim laughed. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Yeah... Um, thanks. For bringing it to me. And for inviting me to stay here with you," she smiled and took the plate from Jim.

He shrugged casually, but then his brow furrowed in thought. "Hey... Tabitha?"

"Hmm?" she questioned through a mouthful of food.

"What, uh... what are we?"

Tabitha swallowed. "I'm guessing the answer you're looking for isn't 'humans'."

Jim laughed. "No. I meant us, together... a-as a couple..." He trailed off, unsure of how she would react.

"Well... we're just that - a couple," Tabitha shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean, I am your girlfriend, right?"

"Are you?"

She blinked in shock. "I... I thought I was..."

Jim smirked. "You know, I never actually asked you..."

Tabitha went scarlet. "I-I'm sorry. I thought we... I mean, b-because that night, in the galley... and we... I-If you don't want to, it's fine. I-I didn't mean to imply... I never understood h-how this couple stuff works - "

"Hey, hey, relax," Jim chuckled. "I was messing with you."

"Oh. So I am...?"

"Well, do you want to be?"

"I think the answer to that's been made pretty clear..." she mumbled, looking down at her lap.

"So I just need to make it official, huh? Okay - " he cleared his throat and adopted a ridiculously serious expression as he took her hand in his. "Tabitha Alexander, will you be my girlfriend?"

Tabitha gasped, a hand flying to her heart over-dramatically. "Oh, yes, James Hawkins! I would love to be your girlfriend!"

They laughed at the scene they'd created together. When Jim saw how happy Tabitha was, he couldn't help but kiss her.

"Oh, okay."

They abruptly pulled apart at the sound of Mrs. Hawkins' voice.

"Mom, Tabitha and I are - " Jim began happily.

"I think I figured it out on my own now, Jim," his mother smiled.

Jim laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head, while Tabitha looked away, her cheeks flushing a dusky pink.


Several hours later, the five of them – Tabitha, Jim, his mother, Dr. Doppler, and Captain Amelia (who had joined them for dinner) –had finished a dinner and were lounging in Dr. Doppler's living room, finishing up the story of their voyage, if you could even call it that. Jim, who had played the narrator of the story, had opted to take out so many of the "scary" details that it pretty much just sounded like a pleasure cruise. All Tabitha, Amelia, and Delbert could do was sit back and look amused.

"Uh-huh…" Sarah replied at the end, obviously very skeptical.

"Yes, ma'am. Smooth sailing all the way," Jim flat out lied. Tabitha laughed at how outlandish this was compared to the truth, but tried to cleverly disguise it with a cough.

"Yes, that's another thing," Mrs. Hawkins began. "Where did this 'ma'am' come from?"

"You can thank me for that, Ms. Hawkins. I hope you don't mind me forcing some manners onto him," Captain Amelia responded.

"Be my guest! I've been trying to do it for years. I'm glad to see you got something good out of this trip, Jim."

"Yeah, me too," Jim responded, casting a glance over to Tabitha that no one except Tabitha herself caught. She held his gaze, biting her lip to hold back a smile.

"Well, I really must be going," Amelia began. "A captain's work isn't over just because she's back at port."

Dr. Doppler escorted Amelia out while the other three stood up and stretched sleepily.

"Mom, can I talk to you for a minute?" Jim asked.

"Of course."

He pulled her out into the hallway and immediately wrapped his arms around her. "Thank you."

"For what?" she asked in shock, returning the embrace.

"For everything," he said as he looked into her eyes. "For never giving up on me. For letting me go on this trip. Mom, it was amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how it all happened, but I... I-I just changed, I guess. It's going to be different now, I promise. I owe you that much."

"You don't owe me a thing, Jim," she assured him, pulling him into another hug as her eyes teared up.

Though Jim would never admit it, his eyes weren't exactly dry either.


"Tabitha, you're staying in the first room on the left when you reach the top of the stairs," Dr. Doppler explained as to Tabitha after he was done saying goodbye to Captain Amelia.

"Okay. And thanks again for letting me stay," she said politely.

"I assure you it's no trouble at all," he smiled.

Tabitha nodded and left to go to bed. Stars above, she was tired. She wasn't sure she'd ever feel truly awake again. She trudged tiredly up the staircase to the washroom to change into the clothes Jim's mother had loaned her while her own were being washed. Drowsily, she changed and brushed her teeth before wandering across the hall, looking forward to simply falling into bed. She yawned as she opened the door -

"Whoa! Hey!" Jim yelped.

Tabitha's jaw dropped at the sight of Jim in only his boxers. As he tried to quickly pull on his pants to cover himself, Tabitha blushed furiously and managed to regain enough sense to know to turn around.

"I-I'm sorry!" she apologized to the wall. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to... I mean, I didn't know you were... I-I-I'm sorry!"

"Uh, i-it's alright," he told her as he felt his face heat up.

Tabitha was too mortified to think of anything else to say.

"Um, you can turn back around now..."

Tabitha slowly obeyed, her face still scarlet. "I-I-I'm really sorry... "

Jim, now dressed his sweat pants and a tshirt, was scratching the back of his neck nervously, but tried to sound reassuring nonetheless. "I-It's no big deal... But, uh, what are you doing in here?"

"Dr. Doppler told me this is where I was sleeping."

He blinked. "This is where I'm sleeping."

"Oh."

"Well, I mean, there are two beds, but..."

Tabitha looked around the room for the first time, finding that there were two twin beds on either side of a small nightstand. "I... guess they just figured we wouldn't mind because we slept in the same room on the ship...?"

"Yeah... well, um, I don't mind," Jim shrugged. "That is, unless you're uncomfortable. I-I can go talk to Doc and - "

"N-No, it's fine. Really," she assured him.

"Are you sure?"

Tabitha nodded.

"Okay, well, um... goodnight, I guess..."

"Yeah, goodnight," she mumbled.

Jim doused the lights and they each laid down in their own bed, but neither drifted off to sleep yet.

"Jim?" Tabitha whispered into the silence.

"Hmm?"

"I really am sorry. I had no idea you were in here or I never would have - "

"Tabitha," he laughed. "It's not a big deal. Call it payback for when I did the same thing to you."

"O-Okay..."

"Just forget about it."

But Tabitha knew she wouldn't be forgetting how attractive Jim had looked, just like Jim knew he wouldn't be forgetting the sight of her in that paper thing nightgown...


Jim had no idea why he was awake. Glancing around the pitch black room told him it was still the middle of the night, and his ears told him that the rest of the house was asleep as well. He rubbed his eyes, willing them to adjust, and was finally able to see that the bed beside him was empty and the door to the hall was slightly ajar.

Jim threw back the covers and slipped out of bed, shivering when his feet touched the cold, hardwood floor. Once he was in the hall, he could faintly see that there was a light on somewhere downstairs. He followed, as quietly as he could, down to the ground floor and into the kitchen. When he entered, Tabitha was standing with her back to him, the comforter from her bed wrapped around her shoulders. Before Jim had a chance to make his presence known, she turned around, jumping about a foot in the air when she found him standing in the doorway.

"Jim!" she squealed.

"Shh, sorry!" he apologized, trying to keep her quiet. "I didn't mean to scare you. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," she breathed. "What are you doing down here?"

"I woke up and noticed your bed was empty." He waited a second to see if she would explain on her own before urging her on. "What are you doing down here?"

"Oh," she muttered, looking down at her feet. "I, um... couldn't sleep."

"Did you have a bad dream or something?"

She shook her head. "No..."

"Uh... are you sick?"

She shook her head.

Jim's brow furrowed as he walked over to her. "What is it?"

He waited. Eventually, Tabitha looked up and Jim was finally able to notice that she was crying. "Where do you think he is?"

"What?"

"He's okay, right?" she begged. "I mean, wh-what's going to happen to him? I just keep thinking of him, a-alone in that longboat..."

Oh. Now he understood - she missed Silver.

"Wh-where will he go? What i-if something happens to him? What if... what if he..." She lowered her head to hide more tears but she couldn't hold back the sob that escaped her.

Jim didn't have a clue what he was supposed to say. In truth, he'd been wondering the same things, but obviously it had gotten to her more. But Tabitha had known Silver much longer than Jim had; Silver had practically raised her.

Unsure of exactly how to handle this, he gently pulled her towards him. As he wrapped his arms around her back, she gave in and sobbed against his chest. She kept the blanket pulled tightly around her body as Jim comfortingly ran his hand down her back.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Jim attempted to assure her. "He's fine. Don't worry."

"I just wish I knew where he was..."

Jim's eyes widened as an idea struck him. "Come here."

"Where?" Tabitha sniffled as she followed Jim out of the kitchen, through the den, and Dr. Doppler's library/observatory.

Jim flicked on a switch by the door and the metal dome of the roof began to retract, revealing the starry night sky through the glass ceiling. Tabitha sucked in a small breath of awe before Jim distracted her.

"Come here," he called, motioning her over to where he was now standing on a small platform that lead to the eyepiece of the gigantic telescope.

"What?" she asked nervously.

Jim smiled. "Well, one, I'm cold, and I was wondering if you'd come keep me warm."

Tabitha blinked. "Wh-what?"

"The blanket?" Jim reminded her.

"Oh. Right," Tabitha mumbled as a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Geez, what did you think I meant?" he teased as she approached him.

"Oh, shut up..." she mumbled as she handed him half the blanket. "What are you doing?"

Jim wrapped the blanket around behind him so that they were side by side, each holding one edge of it. "You said you wanted to know where Silver was, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well - " he flipped open a nearby astronomy book and began skimming through it. "I'm going to show you where he might be."

"What do you mean?" she asked curiously. "He might be anywhere in the Etherium."

"I know," Jim answered. "For example - " he moved back over to the telescope and changed it's positioning just slightly. "He could be there."

"There?"

"Yeah, look," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her up so she could see.

Blushing at his touch, she hesitantly obeyed and found herself gasping at the sight of a beautiful planet of swirling blue and green patterns. "What is that?"

"That is the planet Rivage - a planet composed mostly of water," he explained. "The little land that there is is all beaches. It's paradise."

"Wow..." Tabitha said in awe.

"Or," Jim continued, taking control of the telescope once again. "He could be... there." He backed up to let Tabitha see the bright pink planet. "Benywaidd."

"That's a weird name. What's there?"

"It's the 'feminine' planet. It's home to these nymph-like aliens. Apparently, they're all beautiful in an almost hypnotic way."

Tabitha laughed a little. "Yeah, he might enjoy that."

Jim grinned at the fact that she was now smiling. "Personally, if I had to go somewhere..." he adjusted the view once again. "I'd go here."

She once again looked to see a planet, this one brown. "Why? It looks kind of dull."

"It's called Alegria," he explained. "It may not look like much, but it's a sort of utopia. Perfect place to live, raise a family..."

"I never would have guessed," Tabitha said casually as she looked back to Jim. "I guess things aren't always what they seem."

He smiled and shook his head. "Not even close."

She bit her lip. "Have you ever heard of Meddyliau?"

"Med... what?"

"I'll take that as a no," she laughed. "Meddyliau. It's just a quiet little planet, but... well, hang on, I'll show you."

"Okay," he chuckled as she found her bearings and adjusted the telescope.

"Ah! There it is." She moved back. "Tell me what color it is."

"What?"

"What color is it?"

"What do you mean what color is it? It's the same color as when you looked at it."

"Just play along."

He sighed and looked at it. "It's purple."

Jim turned to look at her again. She held his gaze for a moment, then took a deep breath. Before he could ask her anything, he realized how close she was, and he found himself leaning towards her, preparing for their lips to meet. Then they did, and his lips curled into an unstoppable smile.

She pulled back, looking flushed. "Look at it again."

"What?"

"Just look."

Still flabbergasted by this whole scene, Jim looked again. "Whoa! I-It's gold!"

"What?" Tabitha gasped.

"Yeah! It's gold now! How did...?" Jim shook his head in disbelief, gazing up in the general direction of the planet through the glass dome. "Okay, it's your turn to explain."

"Well... the planet itself is just a calm planet - the perfect place to go if you want to be alone, to just get away from it all," she explained. "But from a distance, it has the ability to appear differently to different people, according to their mood."

"Seriously?" Jim asked. "But how does that work?"

Tabitha shrugged. "How does anything work?"

He laughed. "Okay, fair enough. So what do the colors mean?"

"Well, purple represents confusion, which makes sense because you didn't understand why I was asking you what color it was. When I looked through, it was green, which means your hopeful, or optimistic, which makes sense because I'm hoping Silver is okay."

"What about gold?" Jim asked.

Tabitha hesitated. She tilted her head back to gaze at the sky. "Silver showed me that planet not long after he took me in. Over time, I went through all the colors - blue for happiness, red for anger, pink for embarrassment, orange, black, yellow, brown... but I never saw gold. So finally I asked him if it ever appeared gold. He told me it could, but he'd never heard of it actually happening."

"Why not?"

"Well... he said that gold basically meant perfection. It only appears gold when you're completely happy." Tabitha turned back to look at Jim. "Silver had never met anyone who was completely happy, and he wasn't even sure it was possible."

Jim just stared at her, working through the story silently. "Completely happy?"

"Yeah," she mumbled.

"But I... right before it turned gold, we..."

Tabitha blushed, but was clueless as to how to respond.

"Tabitha, I..." He stopped when he realized he had no idea what he wanted to stay.

"Yes?" she whispered eagerly.

Holding her gaze, Jim took a deep breath and decided to speak up before his courage wavered. "Look at it again."

"What?"

"Look again. What color is it now? For you?"

Tabitha gulped, but slowly leaned down. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know, or if she was ready to find out...

"It's... I-it's gold..."

"Really?" Jim gasped.

"Yeah." Anxiously, wondering if Jim had reached the same conclusion as she had, she looked back up and found Jim standing much closer than he had been.

Jim grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."

Her breath caught and she couldn't speak, but she didn't need to. They were clearly thinking the same thing. They laughed in breathless shock as he carefully leaned down to kiss her once again...


When Jim awoke the next morning, his first thought was that he must have dreamed it all; it was too good to be true.

He quickly realized he was wrong when he felt movement and found himself squeezed, side-by-side, into a recliner with Tabitha. He had one arm wrapped around her, with her head on his shoulder and one of her hands placed gently on his chest. The blanket was draped over them, but had begun to slide down slightly, making Tabitha shiver. Jim chuckled quietly to himself and pulled it back up around them.

Glancing up through the glass dome of the observatory told him it was still quite early in the morning. He closed his eyes, planning to fall back asleep...

"Jim?"

His eyes flickered back open in surprise that Tabitha was awake. "Yeah?"

She yawned and shifted closer. "Thank you. For... everything."

He grinned to himself. "No. Thank you."

Tabitha let out a dreamy sigh and almost instantly drifted back to sleep. Jim could smell the scent of her hair, feel her heart beat, still taste the kiss from the night before... but he could not wrap his head around the fact that right now, at this very moment, he was holding happiness in his hands. As the arm wrapped around her shifted to hold her even tighter, he decided he didn't need to understand how it was possible. It just was.

It was written in the stars.


Okay, so yeah, it's a bit weird, but I still thought it was really cute :)

Kudos for the ideas, you guys!

OH! And everyone should go check out Lauren-24 on DeviantArt (lauren-24 . deviantart . com ) It's ADangerousPastime's account, and she's drawn some sketches of Tabitha and Jim, including a kiss that is so so so SO adorable!

Leave more comments/requests/etc.!

-Emily

+Responses to Reviews+

NeverTooLate03: Ha No, you didn't forget it. The swimming part was added on. And that old man was added for a specific reason that will become clear later on... :)

anon: Oh yeah, sorry, I didn't actually say it, but they're on a cruise type thing. And yeah, we'll see the whole being carried over the threshold thing a little later on. Thank you!

23jk: Haha I'm glad it wasn't awkward! Thanks!

SweetAngel183: Eep! That is kind of embarrassing. Ah, well. Ce la vie :D Thank you so much!

MistressTaco: Haha Thank you!

Tsukasa-kan: Lol You have no idea how long I've been working on writing that lemon. I've had to build up bravery for months to post it xD Glad you like it!

Horseygirl 96: Haha Okay well you didn't have to, but I'm glad you read, and liked, the lemon. Thank you :)