Seymour hadn't seen or heard from Audrey in a few days, and he was beginning to get very worried. He had gotten used to her stopping by often, and she always at least sent a message if she had other plans for the day. He had found himself spending a lot of time thinking over their past few conversations, wondering if he might have done something that upset her. But no matter how much he thought it over, he was sure that everything had still seemed perfectly normal the last time she left the lab.
He debated for a while over whether or not to reach out himself. He figured there was a good chance she'd just found something else that was more fun to do, and he didn't want to bother her if she was off exploring the current port, or spending her time in a part of the ship with better recreational activities. But without hearing from her at all, he couldn't manage to stop himself from thinking that something might be wrong.
Several times, he started to type out a message, only to end up talking himself out of it every time.
{Would you like any more flowers for your room? I have some new varieties I think you'll like, and-}
He erased what he'd written, deciding that it was too soon since the last time he gave her flowers for that to be a good excuse to reach out. The old ones probably weren't even beginning to droop yet. And besides, he hadn't finished the new species he was working on yet, and he didn't want to show Audrey until he'd gotten it just right.
{Have you been feeling well? Let me know if you'd like me to bring-}
No, that was pointless. She could request anything she wanted to eat in her room, and if she had come down with anything that required more than rest and whatever comfort foods she was used to, she'd be better off going to the sickbay. He wasn't too familiar with trying to cure anything besides moldy leaves or root rot.
{Have you been enjoying our current stop? Because I have a lot of shore leave saved up, and I thought maybe-}
That had to be an even worse idea. If Audrey was enjoying some time off the ship, he couldn't just go fishing for her to invite him along. If she wanted him to come down to the planet with her, surely she would have asked already. She'd probably find it embarrassing to be seen walking around with the crew in a public place like a big tourist attraction.
There was one question he wanted to ask her more than anything, but since he didn't seem to be getting anywhere trying to write a decent message, he decided that the best thing to do would be to try stopping by her quarters in person.
As he hovered by the small screen next to her door and waited for it to finish sending the message he'd typed in asking if it would be okay to see her now, he started imagining many different scenarios about what might happen when she opened the door. He hoped she would be happy to see him. Possibly, she'd be annoyed and ask him not to bother her again. But what he wasn't expecting was that Audrey would open the door, see him standing there, and immediately throw her arms around him and burst into tears.
"Audrey? What is it? What's wrong?"
She was so upset she could hardly manage to think, but she did know that she wanted to be out of the hallway. With her hands tightly clutching onto his shirt, she pulled Seymour far enough into the room for the door to slide shut again. She couldn't stand the thought of anyone else seeing her now, but maybe everything could be okay for a little while if it was just the two of them.
Seymour didn't have the first clue what was going on, but it seemed like he should focus on the fact that Audrey was clearly feeling terrible before he tried to get to the root of any problems. He could feel her shaking as she held onto him, almost like a leaf clinging to a branch in a strong wind. And though he wouldn't even dream of dropping her, she seemed unsteady enough he felt sure she would fall to the floor if he were to let go.
He might not be as used to helping people as he was with plants, but as he guided Audrey over to her bed and helped her sit down on the end, he decided that in both cases some water would be a good place to start.
"I'm gonna get you something to drink, okay?"
Audrey briefly flinched away when he pulled a glass from her replicator and tried to hand it to her, but she managed to register that it wasn't one of the ship's brightly-colored liquors, and she accepted the glass once she realized he was offering help instead of trying to make her loosen up and stop complaining.
Seymour waited patiently as she sipped at the drink, slowly at first, then downed the rest of it quickly once she realized just how thirsty she'd gotten. Things like eating, drinking, or sleeping had largely felt like an afterthought for the past couple of days. She considered getting a refill as soon as she reached the bottom, but decided it could wait a few minutes and set the glass aside. Though her hands were still shaking, she gradually felt less like she would start bawling again if she tried to speak, until finally she was ready to talk things over.
"Seymour, there's… there's something I never told you. About what things were like before, and why I came here."
She glanced at the spot next to her, indicating that he could come sit, and he tried to give her a comforting smile as he did so. "I'm sure everything will be okay, whatever it is."
"It's not okay." Audrey said insitently. "The thing is… I wasn't leaving just because I wanted to see new places. I was sort of… on the run."
Seymour looked at her in utter confusion. Audrey was the kindest and most gentle person he knew. He couldn't even imagine her doing something bad enough to get people chasing after her. Surely there must have been some kind of misunderstanding. He wasn't exactly an expert in this kind of thing, but maybe he could help her sort it out.
"What do you mean? You're in some kind of legal trouble?"
"Oh no, it's nothing like that." Audrey said quickly. "But I still did something terrible."
She almost wished her problems were as simple as being in trouble for breaking a rule somewhere. That would have been a lot easier to tell him about.
After a few moments of considering where to start, she decided to ask, "Do you know much about Areole?"
"I know that most of the planet's surface is desert, and that the plant life is evolved to survive in hostile conditions."
"Do you… know why people like to go there?"
He shook his head. There were many times when he'd overheard other crew members mention wanting to visit, but he never really knew why they were so interested.
Audrey wasn't surprised to learn that the extent of Seymour knowledge on the planet was what he'd read about the plant life. But she herself knew very well that tourists didn't come there to sightsee in the desert.
"We don't really have a lot of natural resources there, so we mostly make our money through… you know, 'entertainment'." She explained.
Seymour looked back at her blankly, leaving Audrey with confirmed suspicions that he didn't exactly get out much.
"It's the sort of place people go to spend time with scantily-clad alien women."
She didn't give herself enough time to see Seymour's expression change before she buried her face in her hands. She didn't want to know what he must be thinking about her.
Audrey was shaking again, and Seymour reached for one of the blankets lying on top of her bed. Though he couldn't claim to know exactly what she went through, he did remember feeling so anxious it made him want to lock himself in the basement and never come out again when the shop was being swarmed by attention he didn't want. He didn't have anyone back home who would've helped him through it, but maybe he could do that for her now.
"I'm glad you got out, if you didn't like it there." He told her.
Audrey looked up as she felt a soft weight settle across her shoulders, and the fact that he wasn't looking at her any differently didn't feel as surprising as she would have expected it to be. But she didn't deserve to have him looking at her that way, not when he still didn't know everything yet.
"Leaving was the terrible thing I did, though. I had a boyfriend there, and I left him behind."
For reasons she couldn't begin to understand, Seymour was still giving no indication he thought any less of her, and he only smiled as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"That's alright, I'm sure he doesn't mind waiting until you get back from your trip."
Audrey shook her head almost frantically. "No, I didn't plan to go back. I didn't ever want to go back there."
"Will he come to join you, then?"
"He doesn't even know where I am." She saw Seymour's face growing more confused, but at this point, it felt easier to finish blurting out the rest of the story than to wait for more questions. "I was scared of him, Seymour. I was so scared of him. He was awful even when he liked me, and I don't know what he might've done if I tried to end things. I just waited until he was at work, packed up as many of my things as I could, and left a note saying I wouldn't be back. I know it was selfish, but I knew he'd never let me leave, and I just couldn't stop looking up at the sky every night and thinking about how badly I wanted my future to be some place galaxies away from there."
She could still vividly remember her first day on the ship, rushing onboard as fast as she could and then shutting herself in her quarters, hardly able to breathe until the ship left the station and she knew he hadn't figured out her plans somehow and come to find her. But no matter how risky it was, she couldn't take living on that planet anymore. She was just so sick of hearing the word 'exotic' in what was supposed to be her own homeworld, and the first time she'd managed to find a guy who lived there instead of a tourist who would be gone by the end of the week, it had only made things worse. She couldn't help but hope that if she found somewhere else, somewhere just as green as her, then maybe it would finally be a place where she belonged.
"I don't think that's selfish at all." Seymour assured her. "You shouldn't have to stay there if you weren't happy with him."
"I felt so relieved." She admitted. "It was like a miracle, knowing he didn't even know what galaxy I was in. But I have to go back now."
"You have to go? But why-"
"I didn't even say goodbye to him face-to-face. It's my fault he's angry, and that's why it's my fault he didn't want to let me stay here." Her hands trembling, she reached for her communicator and pulled up the page she'd go to pay for things on the ship, where it was now displaying nothing but zeroes. "He must've realized I'd need money to stay wherever I am. I tried to be so careful, but I guess I left the passcode they sent me after I bought my ticket sitting around somewhere, and he got into my account and drained the whole thing. I can't afford renew my room now."
Seymour had always been rather awkward when it came to eye-contact, but at that moment, he met her gaze without hesitation, looking as sincere as she had ever seen him. "Audrey, I promise, I won't let anyone send you somewhere you don't want to go."
Audrey wanted to believe him more than anything. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than to stay on this ship. To stay with him. Though no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't think of any way to scrounge up as much as she needed before her time ran out.
"But what can I do? I knew I couldn't afford to stay here forever, but I thought I'd have so much more time than this. Now I don't have any plans or any money…"
"You could work here." Seymour blurted the words out before he even had a chance to think, but as soon as he said it, he knew that it could make sense. "Then you'd get free room and board, and you'd even be earning a salary. You could have all the time you need to figure out another place to live."
"Work here... I could do that…" Audrey said slowly, the heavy expression of worry finally beginning to clear from her face. "I could clean rooms, or help with laundry, or… what kind of job do you think they'd hire me for?"
"Well... there are always hospitality jobs onboard, if that's what you'd like to do. But if you wanted, I sort of thought maybe you could work with me?"
Audrey's expression brightened further. "Really? I could work in your lab?"
"I'd have to send them a message and get it approved, but I'm almost sure they'd say yes. You've already been spending so much time there that we'd basically just be making it an official job."
Plus, they were so happy to brag about having the discoverer of a famous alien plant working onboard that they basically let him do whatever he wanted as long as he didn't go over his funding, although that part was the sort of thing he was always too embarrassed to stay out loud. But he never even came close to spending the full they offered him anyway, so he doubted anyone would complain about him requesting additional help.
Feeling like the weight of the universe had been lifted off her shoulders, Audrey finally stopped feeling sick to her stomach enough for her appetite to make a swift return, and she and Seymour were soon eating dinner together and discussing everything else she might need to know about working on the ship. She didn't want anything that reminded her of the place that she could at last stop thinking of as home, and opted for more of the 'PBJs' she'd learned about from him. While she'd still like to have more of a permanent house on a real planet someday, having a real job and living somewhere that wasn't guest quarters would make this feel more like she really lived here. And the more she thought about it, the more she knew that living on the Viridian with Seymour would make this a place she could actually be happy to think of as a home.