Author's Notes: Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.
Not one of my favourite episodes but it does have some great moments.
Enjoy.
"So," Kate jogged to catch up with Miguel, "How's the babysitting?"
Miguel frowned at her, "You know I hate you, right?"
Kate patted his arm, "You adore me."
He glared at her through narrowed eyes.
"Come on," Kate rolled her eyes, "Tim is busy with his project so, since I've no one else to play with, you're my ball of string."
Miguel rolled his eyes, "You are so weird sometimes."
"I know," she shrugged with an innocent smile, "Seriously, what is our guest like?"
Miguel couldn't stop the grin that touched his lips, "She's not as bad as I thought she would be."
"That smile says so much more," Kate replied as they began to walk.
Miguel shrugged, "She's cute. I can't stand her music but I like her."
"I actually kind of like some of it," Kate told him, rolling her eyes when he looked at her with undisguised astonishment, "We don't all need our ears to bleed when listening to music."
"Don't you have some work or something to do?"
Kate grinned at him, "Nope."
Tim found a seat in the room where their guest was giving an impromptu concert. Working on the mountain with Lucas had thrown up problems they hadn't anticipated, like the fact it was a man-made pyramid, and he was relieved to get away from it to clear his head for a few hours.
"Hey," Kate greeted, dropping into the seat beside him, "How're things going?"
Tim sighed, "Not as well as we'd hoped. Something's weird about our readings."
"You'll get it," Kate patted his arm before she turned giving her attention to the woman on the stage as she started to sing.
Tim let out a soft sigh, he'd been trying so hard not to dwell on the stupid fantasy he'd had last month and was managing to do it. That was until right now with Kate sitting at his side, her leg touching his due to the seats being so close together. He'd managed to avoid spending too much time alone with her recently using projects he'd been given as an excuse. Other times it was either poker which meant he could hide behind cards or movie night when he would arrive a little later, so he would be relegated to the seat at the side of the bunk in whichever room they were using. He barely saw half the screen but he wasn't too close to her.
Miguel glanced round at them, "Is this lady great or what?"
"Sure," Jonathan replied wryly, "If you like that cutsie hug me buddy, love me kind of thing."
Miguel shook his head, "I'm just listening to it with a different perspective now."
Wendy shared an amused look with Kate, "I didn't know that perspective had ears."
"Lady's a genius," Miguel ignored her.
"With great legs," Tim threw in without thought, wincing when Kate punched his arm.
Miguel simply grinned back at his friend, "Everybody's gotta stand on something, Tim."
"Do you really want to continue on this track?" Kate asked softly but with a hint of steel in her voice, "Or shut up and listen?"
The young woman in front of them finished her song, they applauded and Kate rolled her eyes when Tony called out, "Come on lady, rock the house."
Suddenly the woman dropped her guitar, and closed her eyes. When she opened them Tim knew something was seriously wrong.
"Osede, Tate onta, tate somina, prote onta," a deep voice came from the woman, "Dorra, pose tonas, dokiea, hatea ota bellea, hitas danas focus."
"What the hell?" Kate breathed confused.
"I haven't heard this one," Tony said alarm in his voice, "What album is it off of?"
Tim grimaced, "You don't want to know."
x
"Let's not get carried away here, guys," Jonathan stated, "I mean she's a rock star. They stay up all night, they pierce themselves with safety pins, they get tattoos, they trash hotel rooms. I mean the lady fainted, big deal."
"Yeah yeah, maybe," Lucas grimaced, "But that weird voice spewing out that language," he shuddered, "It sounded like the Devil."
Jonathan rolled his eyes, "Come on, one of those rock guys used to bite chickens heads off on stage."
"She doesn't seem the type to do that," Kate noted.
Tim spoke up interrupting them, "I recognize the language."
"Yeah," Jonathan snorted derisively "The translation is buy my album, send me money."
Kate turned to him, "I thought I was the cynic in this room."
"That's not exactly the translation," Tim continued ignoring Jonathan roll his eyes at Kate, "It's obviously Greek, but the language is ancient. It's over a thousand years old. It's the language of the Greek myths. You know, Apollo's tongue, so to speak. If you believe in Apollo."
Nathan looked at him with interest, "Do you?"
"I'm Catholic, Captain," Tim reminded him wryly, "I believe in anything that makes me nervous."
"What was she saying?" Kate asked smiling fondly at him.
Tim grimaced slightly, "Well, ah, okay…That is that has been and all that is about to be knows all by the God Neptune's grace, who's heard of monsters and hideous seals he pastures in meadows submarine."
"That's it?" Jonathan asked, while the other three grimaced.
Tim shrugged, "That's all I could get."
"What do you think it means?" Nathan asked their linguistics expert.
"I'm not sure," Tim admitted frustrated.
"Well maybe we have to play it backwards," Lucas suggested, "You know, I mean bands do backward masking all the time. Sing a bunch of Satanic stuff to freak out everybody's parents."
"Lucas," Tim frowned at the teenager before explaining, "Neptune isn't about Satan. He was the Greek God of the sea. He wasn't a bad God. Anyway Neptune predates the Devil in Christianity. He also invented the horse."
"He invented the horse?" Jonathan and Kate asked in unison, the same disbelief in their voices.
Hey, I didn't write it," Tim defended himself, "I just read it in High School. He's also the God of Earthquakes. He'd stick his trident in the ground and shakes it."
"Oh that's very scientific," Jonathan mocked, "Let's hope he doesn't flush the toilet."
Tim grimaced when someone knocked on his door waking him up. Pulling himself out of bed he yanked open the door stunned to find Kate standing there.
"You know it's the middle of the night?" he asked fighting a yawn, "Right?"
Kate nodded pushing him inside and closing the door, "Of course I do but I thought this might be the best time to talk to you."
"When I'm asleep?" Tim couldn't stop the confusion in his voice.
Kate smirked, "When you're not awake enough to make up excuses."
"Excuses?" Tim rubbed his nose still confused.
"You've been avoiding me," Kate stated. Tim opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off, "Don't deny it. We've been friends quite a while and we've always had a rhythm to how we talk to one another. That's suddenly missing."
Tim sighed, "I'm just busy."
"And I'm not?" she shot back at him.
Tim sighed again, "Kate, I really need to get some sleep before my shift."
"Why are you avoiding me?" Kate asked hurt filling her voice, "You know how bad I am at the whole interpersonal thing so you need to tell me what I did?"
Struck at seeing Kate so insecure Tim hugged her tightly. His hand slid into her hair holding her against him comfortingly.
"It wasn't you," he whispered, "I'm sorry, Kate. I've just…I…" Tim hesitated, he couldn't tell her because he knew she didn't see him as anything other than her friend, "I've not been sleeping great the past few weeks then the alien attacked. You, Miguel and Lonnie all went missing for a while."
She pulled back, looking up at him searchingly and Tim hoped she, for once, couldn't tell he was lying.
"We're fine," she took his hand, "Why didn't you talk to any of us?"
Tim shrugged, "It just seemed stupid."
"Well it was."
"Can I go back to sleep now?" he asked.
Kate smiled and hugged him quickly once more before pressing a kiss to his cheek, "Goodnight, Tim."
Closing the door again he lay down and sighed, he had to be her friend again no matter how he felt. He couldn't see her hurt like that again.
x
Kate left Tim's quarters surprised to see so many people wandering about. She frowned confused as she realised they were outside Henderson's quarters where the woman was being talked to by Wendy.
"I thought I was the only one up," Kate noted to an obviously tired Lucas.
Lucas looked at her through sleep filled eyes, "Dagwood saw a horse."
"A horse?"
"Dagwood did," the dagger defended himself.
Kate rested her hand on his arm, "I don't doubt you, Dagwood. It's just…an odd thing to be on the Seaquest."
"I know," Dagwood nodded, "That's why I got Tony and Lucas."
She squeezed his arm, "There were probably better people to go to," she ignored the cries of protests from the two in question, "But it was a good idea to get someone."
"Kate?" Wendy interrupted them surprised, "Do you need something?"
She shook her head, "I was just heading to bed when I saw the three stooges here. Is Henderson alright?"
"She thought she had snakes in her hair," Dagwood supplied.
Kate looked at Wendy for some confirmation, the doctor nodded.
"Lucas, Tony, you both go back to bed," Wendy ordered, "Dagwood, you should go and get some rest as well."
Once the three men had left Wendy turned to Kate, "You should get some sleep too. I'm just letting Lonnie get dressed before taking her to the infirmary."
"Snakes in her hair?" Kate asked cynically.
Wendy shrugged, "I have no idea but with the strange things happening with Miss Tonin and now Lonnie..."
"Tim said earlier that Sara Tonin was speaking Greek," Kate mused, "Isn't there a myth about a woman with snakes for hair?" she hesitated trying to remember the name, "Medusa?"
Wendy looked at her a little surprised.
"I spend a lot of time with Tim and Miguel," Kate reminded her, "I pick things up."
Wendy chuckled before sighing, "Go and get some sleep, Kate. At least one of us should."
"I'll stick around," Kate told her, "I'm not that tired."
Wendy smiled at her, "Thanks."
"What do you think?"
Kate looked at Nathan and chuckled, "I think there might have been something in the drinking water."
He rolled his eyes sipping his coffee as he leaned back in his chair. After the excitement on the bridge he'd ordered them back to New Cape Quest and headed to his room to think. Kate had appeared ten minutes ago with coffee and cake.
"Kate," he chided.
"I don't know what to think," she shrugged, "Other than weird things seem to happen around here."
Nathan nodded, "That's very true."
She took a drink of her own coffee before sighing softly, "You know I miss this sometimes. Just you and me talking.
"Me too, kid," Nathan smiled fondly at her, "But you stopped being my assistant and got a better job."
Kate laughed, "Yeah, being on the bridge seeing insane things, I don't know if I would count that as better."
Nathan took another drink of coffee tapping a pen on the table, "I need to put in a report on what happened."
"I'm not going there," Kate told him with a shake of her head, "I still don't believe what I saw."
"Neither do I," he chuckled softly after a while, "We'll be in New Cape Quest in three days, I think every one of us needs some R and R."
"I think we all need therapy," Kate threw back.
Nathan laughed again, "I'll get Dr Smith right on that."
They lapsed into silence; Nathan broke off a piece of muffin and chewed it thoughtfully.
"Did you talk to O'Neill?" he asked after a minute.
Kate nodded, "Yeah, thanks for pointing me in that direction."
With affection in his eyes he smiled back, "I'll turn you into a real girl yet."