Edited by: maple-the-wacky tree

Open doors. EIGHT

Dr. Barlow closed the door tightly behind her as she entered the medical wing. Deryn fuddled around with her sheet and wrappings, muttering about how she'd just woken up. She felt her face heat up, provoking a smile from the lady boffin.

"A rather odd morning, I believe. But I came to warn you." Deryn stopped to listen to the woman's words. Dr. Barlow took a seat on the cot, smoothing out her strange skirt. "I have already informed the captain you may not be able to work, due to your injury, but there is another item of importance." Dr. Barlow's eyebrows rose, as if she just remembered something, and she said, "But you must be hungry. Here." She reached into the satchel around her shoulder, pulling out a sealed cup of sorts. Deryn wondered worriedly if the concoction would harm her in any physical way. "High protein soup. I'm not a house wife, but it should give you some energy."

That's when it dawned on Deryn how heavy her body felt. Too concerned by the recent event with Alek, she'd temporarily forgotten how much she ached to go back to bed. Hopefully the talk with Dr. Barlow would not be too long-winded.

"Thank you ma'am, but what's this serious news? Surely there's more." Deryn said as she sat on the other cot, opening the sealed up and smelling the soup. Meat chucks and beans.

High protein indeed.

Dr. Barlow got her own Loris on her lap and began petting it like a cat, Tazza sitting obediantly. "It involves Alek and his men."

Deryn froze in mid sip. She knew in her heart that this subject would creep its ugly face back up, but she'd pushed it to the corner of her mind. Her heart churned and kicked her chest so much that Deryn thought she was going to be sick. She couldn't eat another mouthful of the soup if she tried. "Aye, what about them?" she muttered, almost bitterly. Deryn ran her finger on the rim of the cup, looking down into the sea of yellow broth.

"You know as I do that Great Brittan is at war with Austria-Hungary, and having the Hapsburg prince on board . . . well, I'm sure you see—"

"No!" Deryn stood, spilling the soup on the floor and on her bare feet. "They can't send Alek to prison, and we shouldn't be keeping him as a P.O.W. either! They have done nothing but help us and this ship!" Hot tears were starting to build behind her eyes. To hide it, she snatched a couple of pillows and threw them around in anger. "Is this how our Lord Churchill wants to thank people?" Deryn felt her rage boil, ready to scream and warn Alek of the danger. Part of her wanted to tell him to leave jump ship, go and save himself. But her other side screamed and pleaded her to remember that she was a serviceman of Great Brittan, and that she sworn to serve his Majesty at all cost.

Dr. Barlow could only sigh and get up to place a comforting hand on Deryn's shoulder. "Now, throwing things and knocking things over won't solve anything. What happened to the brilliant soldier I know?"

Hollowly, Deryn looked up at Dr. Barlow, hoping that she couldn't see her watery eyes but knowing she would anyway. "That soldier is bout to lose a true friend and . . . and."

Dr. Barlow raised her hand and, hesitating slightly, rested it on Deryn's cheeks, an almost motherly gesture. "Deryn . . . can you tell me something?"

Deryn grew nervous now, the look on Dr. Barlow's face was all too familiar. She tried to run away, but Dr. Barlow was still holding her and Deryn still hadn't fully recovered. Her heavy body did not obey her. The lady boffin's voice was so gentle next, too gentle, that Deryn felt her pulse quicken.

"Deryn, are you...in love with Alek?"

"Ahhhh! Quiet! Not another word!" Deryn protested, but the boffin stood her ground, her face almost victorious now that she had solved a mystery.

"That's why my Loris attached itself to you both," she continued, the possibilities dawning on her. "Why couldn't I have seen this sooner? It is so clear now! Bovril saw your hidden feelings and believed you and Alek are its parents." She sat on the cot, removing her bowler hat and putting a hand to her head. "Although this complicates things even further," she muttered to herself.

"That's barking mad! How does that beastie read human feelings?" Deryn's heart wanted to jump out of her chest, beating like a bee hive inside. It was over. The boffin had figured it out and it was all over. Why did she have to have these girly feelings? And for a barking prince? Someone she knew could never return her feelings. Everything Deryn had worked for was falling apart before her eyes. What went wrong?

"Bovril is unusually clever for being a supposed creature of low intelligence, incomparable to a human. The loris know more just from hearing sounds and attaching itself to humans." She had the proud voice of a parent, whose child had just surpassed all the others in school. A sneer escaped Dr. Barlow's own Loris, its large eyes glaring at Deryn.

"So, it's all gonna be over like this then?" Deryn groaned and put her face in her hands. "I'm such a girl . . . it's disgusting."

"I would hardly call it disgusting," Dr. Barlow stated primly, but Deryn hardly heard.

What should she do? Confess her feelings to Alek, and that fact she was a girl? Was this was her path? After all, Bovril had bonded to not only the first person it saw, but the other "parent" as well. Was that a sign? Deryn shook her head, feeling helpless.

"I believe you should tell him the truth," Dr. Barlow said softly after a long silence. "He deserves to know, especially due to your closeness with each other. And we will be docking in Japan soon. Knowing their situation, they may try and escape again."

Deryn just wanted it all to go back, back to before when she and Alek were just friends and her maddening, girly feelings hadn't surfaced. "But, what if he runs a mile?" she protested. "He can't be friends with girls, let alone a commoner. It's not who he is."

When she looked up when she saw the lady boffin put her hat back on. She squeezed Deryn's shoulders with both hands. "Times are changing, everything is moving. If a female can be a boffin, then why can't a boy and a girl be friends?"

Deryn smile half-heartedly for a moment before bowing her head again. "Because, a boy and a girl can't be friends, no matter what the times . . . if the girl loves the boy." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Deryn wrinkled her nose. The whole thing was sappy and full of clart and Deryn hated it. This wasn't her, this was girly Deryn trying to stay alive.

The lady boffin speculated the miserable girl a little longer before suggesting, "Perhaps then, you should see how he feels. Baby steps first." With her work done, Dr. Barlow left with a pat to Deryn's back and headed to the door. "Oh and by the way, Mr. Sharp. You are needed on guard of Alek as he works topside. Have a good day."

"Thanks a lot," Deryn muttered sarcastically, just out of the boffin's hearing, but inside, her heart was fluttering nervously in her throat.