Starting this chapter I realized how much I really added to the last. It was interesting to see how I've evolved in writing. And thanks to your reviews I'm trying to get these up a little faster. I'm not sure how well it's working though. Lol Hopefully, you'll enjoy these chapters though. Longer definitely, I hope, and they will only get longer. I hope that is. The only problem is though that there is not a lot of chapters that are left that are already written down. I'm going to have to try and work on it though. I don't know if I can with my attention span but I'll try.

Words- Regular speech

Words- Thoughts

Words- Chapters and changes

(Words)- Bez speech

Chapter 33—One Lost, One Found—

Zim's P.O.V….

I was sitting in Wren's office as I watched her pace. My arms were draped along the back of the couch. She was twitching with anger at the news she received about James. James had taken one of her ships without so much as an explanation and it angered her greatly.

"I can't believe that bastard," she muttered and sighed. "What the hell was going through his damned head to take one of my ships?"

"I have no clue Grashe," I said quietly though wondering the same thing. It was probably a good thing he was gone though, I wouldn't have wanted to been him if she got ahold of him.

I continued to watch her pace. CADIE and GIR were also watching her pace back and forth across the room.

"Wren, will you sit down please? You're starting to make everyone dizzy," CADIE said. "That and if you can do that why can't I?"

Wren plopped down in the chair that was behind her desk. She slumped in her chair and massaged the bridge of her nose. "Happy now?" she asked almost snapping.

"Not really," I muttered under my breath and crossed my arms over my chest.

Wren looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. I cursed at myself mentally for saying anything because I forgot how good her hearing was now.

"CADIE, GIR, I need you to do something for me," Wren said quite suddenly.

Both SIR's eyes grew huge. "Really?" CADIE squealed.

"What is it?" GIR asked curiously.

"I need you two to go find Rachel. Don't torture her or anything. I just want you to get her mind off of James for a bit," she said. "Got me?"

GIR stood and saluted, "Okie dokie!" he squealed and scampered off out the door.

"Wait for me!" CADIE yelled. She ran after him as quickly as she could.

Suddenly, Wren and I were the only ones left in the room. She looked at me squarely in the face with a curious look. I averted my eyes from her and gulped slightly.

"Zim, about earlier today."

"It was nothing Wren," I said with a wave of my hand.

"Nothing my ass," she said standing up. "You almost kissed me."

I looked back up at her noticing a small blush covering her cheeks and spreading across the bridge of her nose. "I know," I said quietly, "I wasn't going to at first but it just happened."

Wren laughed and sat down beside me, "You sound like you did kiss me, not almost."

I looked away from her again this time my face flushed a bit. It wasn't like I hadn't been thinking of kissing her for awhile. I've wanted to do it for a while. I just couldn't bring myself to do it because it not only went against any ship code that I had ever known but because of how different we were.

"Zim," she said quietly. I could tell there was a frown on her face just by the tone of her voice. "Do you think I'm mad at you for it or something?" she asked.

"No," I replied slowly shaking my head. "I personally just didn't want it to work out between us." My reply was low and quiet.

"And why is that Zim?" she asked just as quiet. Right now I knew she would be lowering her ears, hurt written in her voice without even looking at her. Those usually muddy grey eyes changing from a soft grey with greens, browns, and blue mixed in, changing to an icy blue/grey in sadness was what I saw in my mind without looking her in the eye. I cursed myself noticing how much I knew her moods and how she looked when shifting through each mood.

"Wren, I'm older than you by several years. We are so different it's not funny," I replied leaning forward to look at the ground, my elbows braced on my knees and lacing my claws together, hating that I knew I was hurting her. "Why would you ever want to be with someone so different?"

She paused a moment before answering. She stood, "I could as you the same Zim."

I looked up at her for a moment. I saw everything that I had envisioned her to be doing because I knew her that well hurt. She walked to the center of the room, her back to me.

I cursed myself, "Shit, I've done it now." I stood also and started to move toward her to comfort her.

Wren's P.O.V….

I knew it was too good to be true. "Does Rachel feel like this right now?" I thought to myself as I wrapped my arms around myself. I heard Zim stand up and step toward me.

I turned to look at him over my shoulder. I couldn't help it, my ears were lowered in a sign of defeat and my tail wrapped around my legs. Zim opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as if he was unsure what to say.

"I'm sorry Wren," his whispered and turned from me.

He left the room quickly without a look back. I felt numb and could only make my way over to sit on the sofa. I buried my face in my hands as tears made their way down my face. Silently I begged Bez not to let anyone in as I cried to myself.

Rachel's P.O.V….

I was being followed. Not followed by crew members or even a murderer. No, I was being followed by two insane SIRs and I did not like a second of it. I rolled my eyes at them and sighed seeing that I would actually prefer the company of the murderer over them.

Right now we were going to the medical bay to see the new charge. He, by the sound of it, was doing quite well now. He was just a little weak, dehydrated and a little malnourished, but fine other wise. The way the nurses knew he was doing well was that he was flirting with them. I wasn't sure how far I or Wren would let that go though. We couldn't have him distracting them constantly until we found a job for him.

"CADIE, no tackling the crew," I scolded suddenly aware that she had done just that.

"Awww, but they're so cute!" she squealed. "Not as cute as GIRy thought!"

The mentioned SIR blushed as CADIE hugged him then proceeded to give him a kiss on the cheek. That made him blush even more.

"Ok CADIE, stop flirting," I said rolling my eyes again with a sigh.

I tapped the door panel to let us into med bay.

She giggled then cried out, "But I need to flirt! I must flirt! Flirting is my life!"

We entered the medical bay as I rolled my eyes at her crying. I just wondered how the guy survived so long with her.

"Oh geez, not her again. I was hoping someone destroyed her," someone said from the far side of the room. "Or left her behind."

"Yes me!" CADIE squealed and leapt onto the bed that held a person.

I frowned slightly as his face stirred something in my memory. Something seemed familiar about him too. I studied him better while they exchanged banter.

He was tall. Even lying down I could tell he was tall. He was maybe six feet, maybe. He was maybe my age or a year older as well. Dusty, red hair that was long due to being in space for a while it seemed. A little bit of a beard had started to cover his face due to his age. Freckles covered his nose and a bit of his cheeks. His face was a little thin, probably due to the lack of food the last few weeks. But his eyes were bright, very bright. He had blue eyes, almost as blue as the sky from home.

"But I had to put up with you for four weeks!" the person whined, "You talked for three out of the four weeks straight!"

"I did not," CADIE pouted.

"You did so," he said and poked the SIR in the chest.

"Maybe I did. I didn't really go far conversation wise though. I sang most of the time," CADIE retorted.

"And I know almost every show tune that appeared in a musical thanks to you. I'm almost a whiz at naming each and every song," he said frowning. "And now I can't get most of them out of my head."

He looked to me, "But enough of my whining about musicals and your annoyances. Who is the cutie that came with you?"

"Oh….This is Rachel! She's second in command," CADIE said matter-o-factly. "GIR says that the other second in command left suddenly because he was an ass."

Our guest raised an eyebrow to the SIR, "I didn't even know you knew that word you know." He turned his attention to me and gave a grin that was a half smirk. "Rachel, what are the chances of this meeting? Seeing you amongst the stars is a treat."

I gave him a frown and a suspicious look. "You know me?"

"I should know you, we chatted online for over a year," he replied.

"I chatted with a lot of people on the net. I need a sign in name or a real name to really know you. About three months in space with about fifty-one Irkens, a best friend who had an allergic reaction to an injection, and an insane SIR can get to you," I said.

"You've been in space for three months," he asked in awe.

"Well, about threeish months and three days," I said with a shrug. "We really haven't figured out days in space yet. I'm still kinda on Earth days."

"Oh, anyway, Curtis."

"Chawa?" I asked. Suddenly it clicked. "Oh, Curtis from Iowa! How the hell did you get stuck with CADIE alone on a ship?"

"That is a long story," Curtis said.

"I've got time," I said looking around the room for a seat. Finding one I pulled it over to his bedside, "I'm off duty today anyway because of personal problems."

"Personal problems?"

"Yes, personal problems!" I snapped. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Ok, sorry I asked then," he said and raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. "I didn't mean to get you snappy. I'm sorry I asked."

"No, I'm sorry," I muttered and raked my hand through my hair. "The past few days have been pins and needles for me. And the first second in command leaving didn't help either."

"Understandable, anyone can lose their cool with an insane robot around," he said with a grin.

I smiled weakly back at him. "So, where does your story start stranger?"

Narrator's P.O.V….

It turned out that Curtis had been asleep when his town was taken. He had started out on a slave transport to some planet when another craft attacked. By the sound of it, it was and Irken vessel. Of course, the other clue was when Curtis said that the other ship unleashed CADIE onto his ship. All the crew except him committed suicide by ejecting themselves out into space. Curtis wasn't bothered by it and preferred life so he stayed on the ship. It was quite easy to ignore the SIR. Or so he said.

"And that is how it happened," Curtis finished. "I was on there until my supplies ran out. The other ship, after letting CADIE loose just left."

"Sounds like you had it pretty rough," Rachel said. "I don't want to know what would have happened if you would have actually been sold into slavery."

"Well, we'll never know," Curtis said and winked at Rachel. "Things are getting better now though because I have breathtaking people around me."

Rachel snorted. "It works with the nurses, not me. You're charm can only go so far Casanova."

Standing and stretching a bit Rachel cracked her neck a bit. "Anyway, sorry to leave you now Curtis. I've got to go check in with Wren and tell her you're awake and that we know you."

"Wren's here too? I hadn't talked to her in forever," Curtis said wistfully.

"Yeah, but I believe she has already been taken," Rachel said quickly.

"By who?"

"Zim," Rachel replied turning to leave. She looked back over her shoulder. "Tomorrow if you're feeling well enough, I'll show you around the ship and we'll figure out something you can do."

Curtis nodded, "Ok."

"Later then," Rachel said with a wave over her shoulder and left the room.

Curtis looked after her, with a sigh, "Till tomorrow Rachel."

She headed toward the lifts making her way to Wren's room.

Wren's P.O.V….

After Zim had left I sat there for a while trying to pull my thoughts together and trying to stop those tears of mine. I shouldn't have been crying over someone I barely knew. I sat down at the desk in my room pulling a video screen toward me. I tapped the vid in a certain sequence and music started to play around the room. It was soft to start then became louder and harsher as it went.

It was amazing the first time it had happened and I didn't quite know what to make of it. But right now it was a savior and helped me relax. We only had it because of Bez. He could pull any song from your memory and place it into a memory core that stored music. Thank goodness I had a lot of songs to choose from. And hearing the music of the Irkens was interesting too.

The door beeped signaling someone was outside. "Come in," I said tapping the screen so the music's volume lowered. I pulled another screen toward me starting to look over things to make is seems like I had actually been doing something productive other than being moody and mopey. I hoped that the evidence that my tears from earlier were not that obvious.

Rachel entered the room and just plopped down into a chair across from me without invitation. I hitched an eyebrow at her. "I just saw our new crew member," she said draping an arm over the back of the chair. She threw a leg over the arm of it. That seemed to be her newest favorite lounging style.

"Is there any odd stretch of luck that it's anyone we know?" I asked looking at the screen in my hands.

"Yes actually," she replied. "Curtis."

I gave her a puzzled look. "I know a Curtis?

Rachel rolled her eyes, "Yes, Curtis from Iowa."

"Curtis from Iowa… Iowa…" I murmured to myself. "Oh! That Curtis from Iowa! The one I thought looked a little bit like Andy."

"Yep, that Curtis."

"Ok," I said with a nod. "How is he doing?"

"Just fine. He's flirting with almost every female that comes across him," she answered with a shrug.

I just snorted. "Just like a guy," I said. I looked at the clock that we had somehow figured out and sighed. "You heading to bed soon?"

"Yeah, your shift starting?"

"Yep, yay for me huh?" I asked with a small laugh while standing.

She stood and laughed also. "Then you can show me out as you head out."

"Duh," I said with a smile.

We headed for the door in silence. As soon as we stepped out of it I tapped the pad to lock the room. I didn't feel like picking up after GIR had ravaged my room. I made that mistake once before and I didn't want to make it again.

"I guess I'll talk to you later Rachel," I said waving to her as I started to walk down the hall.

She waved back, "Yep, later."

I rubbed at my eyes and sighed. The oh-so-mysterious Rouk suddenly appeared out of no where and draped herself across my shoulders. "You're not sleeping," she said.

"I know, I know," I muttered. "I can't help it though."

Rouk rubbed her head against my cheek. "I know that. Maybe you should take something to help you sleep."

"That won't help. I don't want to grow dependant on sleep medication anyway," I muttered again as I scratched her ears gently.

"You have a point there," Rouk said thoughtfully.

"Rouk, where in the world do you keep disappearing to?" I asked as I hit the lift pad.

"Back into your head," she replied cheerfully.

"Oh, just wondering."

"I'm heading back, I just came out to check on you," Rouk said with a bat at my ear with her paw. "Don't worry about Zim either. He'll come around sooner or later. Being male he can't see the path that lies before him. Nor does he truly understand the meaning of it all."

I was quiet for a moment. "People say I'm a book of mystery. You, my muse, are a tomb and then some," I muttered. "You're my muse and even I have no clue what you're talking about you sometimes."

Rouk winked at me, "I know. That's why I stay around."

I only snorted as Rouk leapt off my shoulder and disappeared with barely a shift in the air. The lift doors opened and I stepped onto it. "Bez, to the bridge please."

Sorry this wasn't longer guys. I feel bad for it not being longer but at least it's up today. Lol. Hope you guys like it.