Haha! Take that writer's block! Also, I apologise for the depressingness...
Rimmer sat on the edge of his bed, fiddling with the buttons of his blue 'Home Sweet Home' pyjamas. Lister was sound asleep, gurgling as he snored, still wearing his hat with the peak pulled down low over his head. A quick glance to the clock told him it was coming up to seven in the morning. Anneke would be awake by now. She was a morning person. It must have been the officer in her.
Frowning to himself he stood, pacing up and down in the narrow space of their quarters. He wanted to see her. He'd spent most of the night tossing and turning, worrying about her so much that he'd barely slept. He really wanted to see her. But his thoughts yesterday had frightened him.
"Holly?" he hissed, not wanting to wake his bunkmate. "Holly, you blethering idiot?"
"Yes, Arnold?"
"Is Lieutenant Thorne asleep?"
"No, Arnold."
"Right. Then dress please."
His creaseless khaki uniform phased into being and he twitched the Windsor knot in his tie until it was verging on being uncomfortably tight against his throat. With a quick glance to assure himself Lister was still asleep, he commanded the door open then made his way down towards the quarantine deck, Holly muttering after him,
"You're welcome, Git."
Rimmer trotted down the crimson steel stairs towards the deck lightly, feeling a tingling, swelling sensation in his stomach. As he made his way he slipped his hands into his pockets, whistling to himself, 'Someone to Watch Over Me' stuck in his head still. Something was happening to him. He could feel a shift. It both terrified and excited him, whatever it was, and he knew it was connected to their guest.
When he reached Anneke's room some fifteen minutes later it was to find the privacy function was on, blacking out the window. He cleared his throat, rocking on the balls of his feet. Hopefully she was feeling a bit of an improvement this morning.
After several long seconds of silence he shook his head, leaning closer to the overhead speaker to call into the room;
"Anneke? It's me. Morning!"
Idly rubbing his nose he waited patiently for a response. Another minute passed and he called her name one more time, then turned around to Holly's screen on the opposite wall, glaring at the disembodied head.
"I thought you said she wasn't asleep?" he said tartly.
"She's not," the computer replied, his eyes glazed over.
"Then what? Is she in the shower?"
"No, Arnold."
"Where is she then, Dingleberry Breath?"
"In her room, Arnold."
Scowling, the hologram turned away, stepping from one foot to the other as he looked at the mirrored window.
"Anneke? Anneke, are you alright in there? Anneke?"
Silence.
"Holly, can you turn the privacy function off?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.
"I can't do that!" the computer cried. "That would be amoral, depraved, and just downright cheeky. What if she's naked in there? I would be actively impugning my own honour!"
"Oh for God's sake, you insufferable prat!" Rimmer rubbed both hands through his hair, turning one way, then the other as he fretted. Giving it one last ditch attempt he called,
"Anneke, please answer me…" but received no response. "Oh, smeg it!"
With a deep, held breath he scrunched his eyelids closed, taking two long strides through the wall before him. Releasing the pressure in his chest he opened his eyes, his heart stopping.
"Oh my God…"
Falling to his knees he fought the wave of nausea that washed over him, hands trembling as he lifted them to his mouth. Anneke was lying prostrate on the floor, a puddle of water beside her, a red plastic cup perhaps two feet away where it had rolled along the lino. Bringing his ear close to her lips he could hear her take a strained breath, an unpleasant popping and crackling reverberating somewhere deep in her throat; she was still alive.
"Oh God, oh God, no no no…"
Reaching for her face, he hovered above her slick skin, aching to touch her, to do something. But he was helpless.
"Holly! HOLLY, YOU BASTARD!"
"Oi! That's not very nice, is it?" came the cockney drawl.
"You absolute idiot! You said she was awake!"
"No I didn't! I resent that! I never said she was awake! Just not asleep!"
Rimmer went to brush his hand over the halo of cream hair that was fanned out around the unconscious lieutenant, millimetres away, longing to feel it beneath his skin, unable to recall any time before now when he had been so utterly useless.
"Oh for smeg's sake, just get Kryten! NOW!"
Twenty minutes later Kryten was scooping Anneke off of the floor and into the decontamination shower, throwing the switch to the coldest setting, Rimmer following. The mechanoid carefully arranged the girl into the recovery position on the plastic floor, calling over the noise of the rushing water,
"We have to bring her temperature down! Stay with her, Mister Rimmer, I will fetch the gurney." He bustled out in a hurry, leaving Rimmer knelt beside her, the droplets of water slicing through him.
"Hold on, Anneke," he whispered, bowing his head. "Help is coming."
A flash of violet eyes, a flutter of lashes shining with jewels of water on the tips, a twitch of her head, low moan escaping her lips as quivering, wet, white fingers slid across the floor, reaching for his own insubstantial ones…
Anneke awoke to a cold rush of air on her face, her chest feeling as though someone had laid a pile of cinder blocks on it. Struggling to open her eyes, a sharp jab of pain shot through her head as they were flooded with light. Whimpering, she forced herself to raise one hand, every muscle screaming as she reached for the oxygen mask on her face.
"Don't do that, leave it on. Come on, leave it."
Come on Anna, you've still got a brain in here. Engage it already.
Gradually things came into focus. She was looking up at a dirty white tile ceiling. Around her were the low beeps and whirs of medical machinery, as well as the purring of a motor and the buzz of a fan. Between her and the tiles that was a sheet of clear polythene plastic.
Fingers still resting on the mask she managed to turn her head to the right, peering at her surroundings. The plastic sheet fell in a neat oblong around her it seemed, held in place by aluminium poles. The noise of the generator was coming from an extraction fan with was connected to a long, canary yellow hose that fed out of the tent.
Next she managed to look down at herself. She was wrapped in a red woollen blanket with tiny square holes in it and the JMC insignia stamped on it in white. Her right hand was pierced with a cannula, a plastic strip of tape holding it in place, feeding back to a fluid cartridge beside the bed. She was dressed in a hospital gown of tissue paper. Again.
Finally she turned to the left, her fingers tightening on the silicone mask. Rimmer was sat there, in the tent, beside her bed, looking as thought he might fall to pieces at any moment.
"Good afternoon," he said tentatively, a deep crease in his brow.
She chuckled at that, then coughed, wincing as she did. Rimmer leant forwards in his chair, gripping the bottom like a vice.
"Hello," the girl managed after a few agonised breaths. "Where am I?"
"The medi-bay. You needed more help than the quarantine deck could afford you," Rimmer mumbled, looking down at his knees and shaking his head. "My God, Anneke, I am so, so sorry. I shouldn't have turned my back on you, I saw what a state you were in yesterday…"
"Don't. It's ok. You weren't to know," Anneke whispered. It was all she could manage. "Be straight with me here, Mister Rimmer; it isn't a cold is it?"
Slowly he looked up at her, a curled forelock slipping forwards. He must have run his hands through his hair a thousand times…
"No. It isn't."
She managed a cracked smile, pushing the blankets down to her hips. It was too hot.
"I thought not…" Looking up at him from the depths of her soft pillow she gave him what she hoped would be a comforting wink, saying,
"You know you're breaking all the rules being in here, don't you?"
"What do you me-" Rimmer paused, looking around himself at the quarantine tent before back at her. "Aah, yes. That. Well, I sort of thought it wouldn't really matter, what with me being little more than an expensive flashlight. Besides, I already broke them when I went into your quarters…"
He sniffed awkwardly, a faint hue of red colouring his cheeks. Anneke's smile widened and she shifted closer to the side of the bed nearest him, whispering as mischievously as she could manage,
"I won't tell if you don't."
He looked down at her with a grateful smile, relaxing a little as she settled back into the bed.
"Well," she said, brushing her damp hair away from her forehead, "what is it we're dealing with here then?"
Rimmer swallowed, jerking to sit up straighter and avoiding her gaze.
"That's not really my area of expertise," he said in a clipped tone. "You'd be better off speaking to Kryten or Holly or the medi-computer, I-"
"Arnold..."
Damn! She did it again! Good grief man, how wet are you that a woman using your first name can have your metaphorical knees knocked out from under you?
Slumping in his chair he looked down at her as steadily as he could. She looked so small, her skin almost the same colour as the bleached pillowcase beneath her, despite the raging inferno of a fever that was going on inside her.
"While you were out cold we did a chest x-ray. You have a severe respiratory infection, caused by this bastard virus" he said softly. "We're pumping you with as many antibiotics as we can. It's some sort of pneumonia, that's why you dropped, you were starved of oxygen. We're doing everything I can, I promise…"
Anneke closed her eyes, taking a few slow breaths of the cold air that was rushing through the mask as she absorbed this. She wasn't a doctor but she also wasn't stupid either. She'd heard about cases like this in history, epidemics in the twenty first century. Things hadn't turned out so well then.
"Anneke..?"
"I'm still here, don't worry."
Opening her eyes she looked up at Rimmer's stricken face, trying to resist the urge to cry. He was an inflated, insecure buffoon, yes, but he was her friend and he had been with her all the way.
"Look you," she said, reaching out so that her hand rested over his, a faint feeling of static tickling her skin as she came within atoms of his projection. "If things go wrong, it's ok, understand? I'll be alright with it. And I swear, I won't try to hijack your Light Bee." She forced a laugh, her companion looking down at her aghast. He went to say something but Anneke cut him off, pointing an index finger at him.
"Ah! I mean it. If it happens, it happens. I've already had three million years I shouldn't have."
Rimmer closed his mouth, an uncomfortable twitching in his chin and jaw. She smiled at him, the warmth of it reaching her eyes.
"By the way, I don't think I'll be much good at chess now," she said. The hologram shook his head, trying to make himself sound light;
"That's alright, I was rubbish at it anyway."
"Want to play the game?" the girl asked.
"What game?"
"You know. I'll start with an easy one. What was the last record you bought?"