Here's the scene everyone's been waiting for! :P Thanks to Maggy for editing the romance, since, as she so artfully put it, I dissect it as if it were a science experiment. ;) Here's to buddies that can help you with troublesome scenes, even though they have questionable grammar. 3

It had been a week since Dylan had last come to see Alek, and other than that brief, confusing confrontation in the hallway, there had been no interaction between them at all. Alek had decided darkly that he—she—had probably chosen the worst time possible to be evasive. For the most part, Alek had gotten over his anger and his feelings of betrayal, but he knew they still smouldered somewhere deep inside him, ready to lash out as soon as the opportunity arose. They would continue to lie dormant until he and Dylan managed to sort out this prickly lie.

It was early evening, and he leaned against the window, watching the sun descending over the passing landscape. They had recently flown over Tehran, and the setting sun was beginning to illuminate the mountainous landscape and turn it a bright, vivid orange. Alek was deep in thought, contemplating his discovery as he had been for the last few days, almost nonstop. He had gone over what he knew, and he thought there probably weren't any mysteries left to him anymore, but there was one aspect of Dylan's secret that he still couldn't figure out: why? Why would a girl with a shot at a perfectly normal life throw it all away to get involved in a war? It had been different with Lilit. She had been born to revolutionaries, and fighting was just who she was. But Dylan, as far as he knew, could have avoided this, could have stayed where she was safe. Why would she risk her life instead? Alek knew that a good many men would avoid going to war if they could, so why didn't a woman? He knew they could fight. Lilit had taught him that. But why would they want to? Society was supposed to protect them from that. Why did Dylan throw that away? Perhaps she really was, as she would have put it, 'cracked in the attic.' Alek sighed. Maybe she was right. Maybe things had been better when he hadn't known.

There was a gentle knock on the door. It pulled Alek out of his reverie, and he stared at it blankly over his shoulder for a few seconds before remembering his manners. "Come in." He turned fully to face them as they entered.

Alek was startled to recognize the visitor. It was Dylan. He remarked gently, forgetting for a moment that he had urgent questions to ask, "I thought you were trying to avoid me."

"Aye. I was. And I was doing a barking good job of it, too. But... Alek, listen. I need help. There's someone on this ship..." She took a deep breath. Now that he saw her for what she was, it was hard to believe he could ever have mistaken her for a boy. There was a definite feminine look about her, especially her face and her long lashes, and she just wasn't shaped like a boy. He realized with a jolt that she was in fact quite beautiful, even in a man's clothes with her hair cut short. Dylan finally continued, sounding as if she were in pain, "Someone is threatening us. I can't say who. But they want every last man on the Leviathan dead."

"Why are you telling me?" Alek asked, confused. "Why wouldn't you tell your captain about it?" He finally remembered that he had to ask Dylan if his second guess was true, even though he already knew deep inside that it was.

But Dylan was speaking again before Alek could continue, all the words tumbling out of her mouth at once. "There's a man, but I can't tell anyone who he is, because he knows the secret I told you about, and if I tell people about him, he'll tell people about me!"

Alek cut her off by replying, just loudly enough to be heard over her panicked exclamations, "You can tell me. You have nothing to lose, not from me. I figured it out, Dylan. But that isn't your real name, is it?"

Dylan stared at him, her eyes wide like those of a trapped animal. "Alek—you said you wouldn't—Idon'tknowwhatyoumean!"

"I told Newkirk I wouldn't try to figure it out, and that much is true," Alek explained. "But then Bovril, he kept saying your name strangely... you're not Mr. Sharp at all."

There was utter silence, and the longer it stretched out, the more Alek began to think that Dylan was about to have a breakdown. His—her, he corrected himself for the second time—usual swagger had disappeared, and she seemed pale, almost sickly-looking. Of course, if Dylan was a girl instead of a boy, then he could understand how all this would be affecting her.

Finally, Dylan nodded slowly, almost imperceptibly. "You're right. Mr. Sharp is my brother. My real name is Deryn Sharp, and I may be a girl, but I'm still a barking good airman." Despite her paleness, she stuck out her chin proudly, and in that moment, Alek felt what he realized, with both shock and embarrassment, was a pang of affection. Now that she admitted it openly, his anger drained away, leaving a hollowness that was beginning to fill up with something new, alien, something he didn't even want. It made sense, he thought, that she hadn't wanted him to know. He wouldn't have either, in her place, just in case, no matter how close they were. He knew that feeling, that kinship with the Leviathan, and he was just as reluctant to give it up, even though he was a Clanker. If a Clanker could love a godless Darwinist abomination this much, then it made perfect sense that a woman could too.

"I know you are," Alek responded. "I was furious, when I figured it out, but... I can understand why you hid it. If there was any chance that I had told someone else... no, I understand completely. And we're still friends, Dylan. Deryn."

"Keep calling me Dylan," Deryn urged, her white face beginning to bloom red instead. "If you call me Deryn, it could slip in front of other people, and that'd be no good... and thank you, Alek. Thank you so, so much. I was so worried..."

Alek smirked. "You had reason. It's good that things turned out the way they did, but all odds considered, it's much more likely that they'd have turned out differently." Inside, he was still reeling a little. He'd known she was a girl, but still, hearing her say it brought about the old disbelief.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Deryn was frantic again. "But that man! He wants the Leviathan to burn!" He could see that she was warring with herself. The indecision was tearing her apart; he could feel it, but all he could think about was how attractive Deryn was now that he knew she was a girl. While Deryn was having her breakdown, Alek couldn't help but take in her beauty. His eyes took in her flushed cheeks, traced her soft lips, and suddenly, his brain stopped working. A wave of pity welled inside of him, and before he had even registered what he was doing, he had crossed the distance between them and pressed his lips to hers.

Deryn squeaked, and made a move to pull away, but instead she found her arms wrapped around him, holding him as tightly as she could. Her shoulders shook, but she had the pride to hold back the tears that should have accompanied the sobbing. Instead, she kept her lips pressed against his, forcing herself back into control of her own body. Alek relaxed into her embrace, tasting the sweet and salty tang that made up her lips. He decided, then and there, that her gender didn't matter a mite. She was Deryn Sharp, and she was his best friend, and he loved her, and that was that.

After a blissful few seconds that seemed much shorter than they were, Deryn stepped away. "I..." she croaked, then paused. Alek could see her thinking of the words to describe what just happened, but she seemed to remember a more pressing issue. "That... was nice. But we still need to do something about the man. I—it's Mr. Hall, Alek. One of the men from the Esperance. He's a Clanker spy. Ever since we discovered each other a few days ago, he's been giving me looks, and now all the questions he's been asking are starting to make sense. He kept asking about how stable the ship was, how a strafing hawk could be killed, things like that... he's going to be the death of us all unless we do something!"

Alek listened with dismay as Deryn explained what she knew. He was beginning to think too much like a Darwinist; the moment she said the man was a Clanker spy, his heart seized, and he felt an overwhelming urge to protect the Leviathan and its crew, as if they were his own people and not the enemy. "We'll figure something out," he said firmly. Without hesitation, he leaned forward and kissed her again, this time on the cheek.

However, the door had been left unlocked. At that very moment, there was a frenzied knocking, and the outsider burst in before Alek could make a move to cover up his action.

It was Dr. Barlow. "Alek! I need your assistance immediately! The other loris—" Then she realized what she had interrupted. A deathly silence fell upon the room.