Go Your Own Way

Prompt - Guitar Hero World Tour

Song - Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac)

Set in the aftermath of the Season Two episode, 'And Everything Nice.'

Disclaimer – Fleetwood Mac lyrics written by Lindsey Buckingham. I do not own these or anything to do with seaQuest.

***

'Sandra.'

It sounded innocent enough, innocent and unassuming. She was no Helen of Troy, but she'd certainly been enough to turn him into Paris; abandoning all reason in favour of deserting and recklessly endangering his friends – something he wasn't about to forgive himself for in a hurry.

It was an age-old tale, he reflected, as he made his way back to his quarters; that of the unwitting man giving his all for the beautiful seductress, and being led to nothing but heartache and ruin. He'd always thought himself better than that. 'Guess I was wrong,' he mused.

He ran his hand through his hair, noticing both the distinct grimy feel and the waft of odour that emanated from his underarm. The Captain had suggested he take a shower – he hadn't washed in two days – but he really didn't feel like it; he had little enough enthusiasm for anything, let alone something that actually involved expending energy. He couldn't even bare to think – he just wanted nothingness.

The strains of music caught his attention as soon as he entered the corridor. Tony was in their room and, by the sounds of things, chilling out with his own brand of musical entertainment. Lucas sighed in annoyance. It seemed silence and solitude weren't going to be found here. He turned to seek isolation elsewhere when the echoes of off key singing and raucous laughter reached him, causing him to pause.

"Lovin' you, isn't the right thing to do."

This was clearly Tony, but the laughter indicated there was more than him in their quarters.

"How can I ever change things that I feel?"

Intrigued by the noise, he backtracked and hovered outside the door.

"If I could, baby I'd give you my world. How can I, when you won't take it from me? Yeah!"

Lucas laughed as Tony added an impromptu exclamation of enthusiasm onto the end of the line and entered into the chorus with an accompaniment of other vocalists he recognised as being Tim and Miguel.

So absorbed was he in the commotion that he failed to hear the footsteps marching along the deck towards him, and jumped as a hand was slapped firmly on his shoulder.

"Hey, Lucas!" Jim grinned. "You joining us?" he asked, holding up the bottles of juice and bags of chips he'd brought from the mess.

"Uh," he barely had time to mutter before Jim swung the door open and pushed him in ahead of him.

"…you can go your own way," the guys continued singing.

"Hey!" Miguel greeted.

"Hi, Lucas!" Dagwood grinned at him, happily.

Lucas looked around him, horrified, upon realising exactly what it was they were up to. In all the commotion of the past few days he'd completely forgotten about it – the video game he'd ordered – Guitar Hero World Tour. It had obviously managed to catch up with them while they were in port. In gamer terms it was a classic. Despite all their advances in virtual games, there really was nothing better than the old fashioned, hands on approach and he'd managed to get a hold of one – mint condition.

"Tell me why, everything turned around. Packin' up, shackin' up's all you wanna do," Tony continued, bellowing into the microphone.

Though looking at it, instruments spread out between them, packaging in shreds on the deck, it could hardly be called mint now. He laughed, despite himself, as Miguel, who was wielding the guitar, sidled up alongside Tony to sing the next line.

"If I could, baby I'd give you my world. Open up, everything's waiting for you."

"Hope you don't mind – I saw the box and couldn't resist," Tony admitted, shouting to him between lines, and laughing as he noticed it had been picked up by the mic and lowered his score.

"No," Lucas shook his head, bemused and disappointed. "Why would I mind? Help yourself, you usually do," he muttered, climbing up onto his bunk to watch them. With few other seating options in the room, Jim climbed up to join him.

"He didn't mean any harm by it," Jim assured him. "Thought it might cheer you up."

"I know," Lucas sighed. The song reached the instrumental, allowing Miguel to mess-up in catastrophic fashion with the guitar solo, and Dagwood to go wild on the drum kit. The scene was absurd and, yet again, he found himself laughing at it.

"Guess it's doing the trick, huh?" Jim laughed also.

"Yeah," he admitted.

"How about letting me have a go next time?" Tim asked Dagwood.

"No!" Dagwood answered, shaking his head dramatically to emphasise the point.

"You know we had people willing to pay us for a chance to play this thing?" Jim told Lucas. "How'd you get hold of one anyway?"

"I have a friend with supply connections," he laughed, dryly, making a mental note to thank Ben for that later.

"You can go your own way…"

The chorus started up below them again for the final time, prompting the participants to goad their friends into joining them.

"Come on," Jim smiled, pushing him down from the bunk to huddle round the microphone and join in the cacophony of noise.

"You can go your own way…" Lucas sang, lending his voice to the effort, and with pleasant surprise, feeling his heart lighten in the process.