A.N. Ha hah! I'm back! Yea-haw! Okay, down to business! Thanx a bunches for all the great review… love much too all and many virtual chocolates. I'm almost positive that this will be the last chapii, but only fools are positive so I won't be so presumptuous as to that. If this gets to mushy or off track somebody will just have to slap me through the internet connection and I'll fix it. Okay, let's see what damage can be done this time, eh? On With the Story!
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Doctor Franklin walked into the alcove that held his two most prominent patients. Marcus was still unconscious and would be for a while longer do to the PPG wound on his shoulder, but Ivanova was stirring restlessly in her sleep.
Steven extended his arm to wake her but stopped when she spoke. " Нет, Маркус, не идите все же. Пребывание, только немного более длинное, пожалуйста." She rolled over clutching her pillow to her face.
Franklin stifled his laughter as he shook her shoulder gently to wake her. Steven didn't pretend to understand Russian, but by the tone of voice and the mention of a certain ranger he could take a wild guess at what the Captain was dreaming of.
"Captain? Susan, wake up." He laughed out loud this time when she thrashed as his hand and grumbled through the pillow.
"Five more minutes, please."
"If you'll wake up, we can run a few tests and then you can go sleep in your own bed." Franklin teased. Susan was confused for a moment then the fog of sleep lifted from her and she remembered what had happened.
Sitting bolt upright at a dizzying speed she looked around wildly. "Marcus!"
"Wow, calm down before you hurt yourself. Marcus is just fine. He took a hit from a PPG, but they only clipped him, he's right over there sleeping it off, see?" Susan followed his gesture to the bed across the alcove and spotted the man lying fast asleep.
She flopped back down on the bed before another thought swam into conscious view. She raised her hands up in front of her face. She realized with shock that they where there, or rather, she could see them.
"Yes, you got your sight back, pretty luck actually. The heat from the panel that exploded broke up most of the scar tissue around the cornea of your eyes. Most of your vision should return normally within the next twenty-four hours." Steven explained as he shone a light in her eyes to check them.
"Most of it?" Susan asked squinting against the bright light. The room fizzled in and out of view when she turned her head but the dizziness had subsided considerably.
"Yes, like we said earlier, your vision will never be as good as it was." Susan rubbed the tense muscles around her eyes. She'd been hoping to avoid this outcome but couldn't really complain, at least she could see again.
"Great, so what am I supposed to do, by the books with large print?" Despite the annoying situation Susan found that at least her humor was still intact.
"Not quite. You'll have to be fitted for glassed sometime with in the next few…" And there went her humor, right out the airlock.
"Like hell, Steven. I'm perfectly able without glasses thank you very much!" She crossed her arms in determination and looked away.
"Okay fine, if that's what you think," Franklin walked ten paces to the wall beyond the privacy curtain rod and pulled an extendable chart from the wall. "Read the last three lines for me please."
Susan squinted for a moment then scowled at the doctor. "I can't" She said bluntly. Steven smirked triumphantly but she wasn't going to give up. "That's cheating Steven. I will not…"
"Oh, come on Susan! This is the exact same chart you'll have to read when you take your pilot's physical. You'll need them anyways. And look at the bright side. After you get used to the prescription you can get contacts."
She continued to scowl at him without a word. Sighing deeply, Franklin decided to change the subject. "So, did you two make up down there, or was it you that shot him?"
Caught off guard Susan dropped her scowl and raised an eyebrow. "What?" She looked over at the prone man across the room and frowned slightly. They hadn't in fact. Marcus hadn't really seem in the mood for making up while they were in down below and she wouldn't be surprised if he didn't want to ever.
-So much for those plans- She sighed to herself. "Why don't you just tell him?" Steven asked causing her to jump. He'd moved next to her bed while she wasn't paying attention and now looked her straight in the face.
"I… I don't know what you're talking about." Susan lied regaining her composure.
"Oh, please. Did you know you talk in your sleep, Captain?" Franklin stated more than asked. He had an annoyed yet amused expression.
"I do not!" Ivanova protested loudly. Marcus stirred in his sleep and Susan looked at him for a long moment. "It wouldn't make a difference. He's not interested."
Steven snorted with annoyance and moved to check on the ranger in question while he continued. "And how would you know that? You won't even let the guy stand at your door step much less let him in."
"No, Marcus is too assertive and open. He would have said something if he was." Sometimes even her own pessimism made Ivanova gloomy.
"Now where have I heard this before?" Steven asked sarcastically. He moved back over to Ivanova's bed and helped her down. "Trust me, he is interested. You can go home. Be back here tomorrow at 13:00." He handed her a slip of paper with the appointment on it and was half way out of the door when Susan stopped him.
"Steven, how do you know?" She gestured slightly over her shoulder to Marcus looking anxious to truly know.
Steven smiled with an impish feature as he answered. "Because, Marcus talks in his sleep too."
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It took the better part of three days for Marcus to regain conscious in which time Susan was confined to quarters giving her the chance to really think things over.
-You can do this, Ivanova- She told herself sternly as she stood out side his quarters the nest day. She had spent the whole walk down reciting what she would say and how she would apologize when she found herself in front of his door, her last nerve fleeting.
The back of her scalp tingled violently as she rang the door chime. "Open." She heard his voice from inside and steeled herself as she walked in. "Oh, hullo Susan." He stopped in his tracks as he was exiting the bedroom.
He had obviously just come from the shower because his longish hear was weighed down with water and he was half way through pulling a shirt over his head.
"Marcus…" Her eyes wondered along his sculpted physic as he stood half dressed in the door way. Words faltered, she could feel the heat creeping up her neck and cheeks.
Marcus blushed as well when he realized what she was looking at and tried rather pathetically to obvert her attention to something else. "Lovely glasses, though you never struck me as the type." He said indicating the octagonal wire rimmed glasses she was wearing.
Blushing even deeper Susan snatched the spectacles from her face and placed them in her uniform pocket. "I, uh… just came by to… apologize." She tore her eyes away from him and tried desperately to pull her mind back into focus. "I didn't mean to attack you like that in down below, and for the other night."
She was rambling now but couldn't quite bring herself to stop; however uncomfortable this was it was necessary. "What ever I did, it wasn't intentional, sorry." She concluded looking away.
Marcus sighed deeply dropping the half dawned shirt on the sofa seat he walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It's alright Susan. There's no need to apologize. What ever it is that you did it wasn't your fault. I just ran off like a scared little girl instead of figuring it out, that's all."
Susan laughed slightly, but didn't look up so Marcus continued. "And down below was my fault. I was being prickly about the whole thing. But you caught me at a rather bad moment. Catching the bad guys and all."
"Oh that's right, what ever happened to them?" Susan asked remembering the group of attackers accused of plotting against the president and his wife.
"Oh, they were apprehended. One in still in med-lab while the other two are enjoying a comfy cell in the brig. None of them have given any hints as to who their employer was yet though." Marcus was explaining to her.
Susan was only half listening. She was again preoccupied with his bare torso. Admiring the pale smooth skin was taking her breath away. –Stop it- She tried to scold herself but with no effect. Then she realized the fresh mark where he had so recently been wounded.
Before she could think to stop herself she reached out an unwavering hand to touch the cool raw skin that spread over his shoulder and down his ribcage. Gasping every so slightly at the unexpected touch Marcus caught her small hand in his.
"I'm sorry!" Susan apologized frantically as she made to leave. "I'll just…" But Marcus did not release her hand. Instead he pulled her back closer to him before she could escape and held her tight around the waist.
"Wait, don't go yet." He breathed, surprising both of them with his actions. –Oh, no. Hear it comes. If I live through this it will be a bloody miracle- But the Boom he had been expecting never came. Instead Susan stood in his grasp seemingly holding her breath. He moved to consume the distance between them when he was interrupted, just millimeters from her expectant lips, by a message alert.
"Yes!" Marcus snapped out annoyance from being interrupted at a moment such as this seeping through every word. The computer console on the wall in one corner bleeped and lit up informing him of an audio message being transmitted. "Receive." He growled as Susan took the distraction as a chance to slip from his grasp.
-Whew! That could have ended up badly- She warned herself. The impish little voices in her head were beginning again, whispering tempting words in her ears, but she wouldn't get pulled into another run away relationship that she knew wouldn't work out on her end.
When Susan looked up from her thoughts Marcus was absolutely growling at whoever was on the other line. "Thank you so much for the bulletin, but I'm well aware that I'm late. I was a tad busy on this end!"
"Oh? With what?" She heard Steven's voice and laughed softly.
"With me." Susan announced with amusement in her voice. She could hear the doctor's amassment as he informed whoever he was with of whom else was on Marcus' link. In the background they could hear the unmistakable voice of Garibaldi asking who with a double take.
"Well bring her to then!" Steven said over the link to Marcus as he ended the link. "And hurry it up, will you?" Then it was silent again. Marcus turned back to Ivanova looking extremely ruffled.
"So…" He searched for words uncomfortably. "Would you care to join us? We're going to so jumpy little bar I forget the name of. Supposed to be a nice place, but it'd be nicer with you there."
Susan blushed again and looked down. "Only if you put your close on." She laughed. Marcus seemed to remember for the first time that he in fact was not fully clothed and returned to dressing himself before they left.
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A.N. Hah! Look at that! I lied! This isn't the last chapii. Though the next will be shorter I think. Just a final ado, you know, some romantical crap to sum it up. That sort. Hope you've enjoyed so far, posts as soon as I can get them. School's a real bitch right now with the end of the first six weeks and all, so, until then, Bye, bye.
Ranger Hikari