Chapter Twenty-One
QUINN
When she stirred, Quinn awoke. Her room had automatic lighting changes for her alarm instead of an intense sound to jar her awake. He yawned, brushing sleep out of his eyes. He met her with a soft sleepy smile. Somehow, that night had differed from the ones they’d shared before.
“Good morning.” It wasn’t a greeting he’d used before since he rarely saw people this early, but he could see why it was apt now.
“Good morning.” She smiled in return. She knew what time it was by the lights. “You can go back to sleep.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to go for a run. Then I’m sparring with Rick.”
“Oh, well, I wouldn’t mind joining you for your run, if that is alright.” Quinn said with a small, hopeful smile. Obviously, he had no interest in sparring, but exercising in the morning was part of his routine.
“If you can keep up.”
He recognized her teasing and was becoming familiar with the flutter he felt when she planted a kiss on his lips as she slid out from under the covers.
“I’ll do my best.” With their plan set, he headed to his room to grab his workout clothes, but not without being bold enough to kiss her as he said goodbye first.
Finding her on the promenade, he noticed she wore slim shoes with minimal padding. He had quite a bit more in his shoes, but he was aware Praetorian joints were more durable than human ones. Stretching, she leaned over, hands flat on the ground beside her straight legs, giving him a rather accentuated view of something her long shirts usually covered and it was well worth taking a second look at.
So Quinn looked. Of course, he looked. He wasn’t even self-conscious about it at first. Right until he realized the effect it had on him. Then his cheeks turned bright red, and he looked away, desperately trying to get his mind on another thought.
“Do you have a stretching routine?” Kira sounded politely indifferent in the question, rising to switch to another position.
“Uh, yes, I’ll get started.” Still quite flushed, he turned away from her direction.
“I think perhaps we should put forth our expectations for what this is between us.” An offhand comment from Kira, but he didn’t face her, so he couldn’t see her face.
“I don’t know. I just like being with you.”
“Well, I wanted to ask that when we’re around the crew, we keep things to a minimum to not draw attention for the moment.”
“Okay, I can do that.” Quinn nodded. He understood the logic. It would obviously cause tension once Watson figured it out.
“Thank you,” she interrupted his thoughts.
“You’re welcome.” Confused about why this was something worth thanking him for. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable request to him.
They began at an easy pace for their first lap before Kira upped it into a steady gait instead of the easy jog, not an outright run, but quick enough to make it difficult to breathe.
She spoke as if they were standing still. “Even if it is not a small thing to you, it is a big thing to me. I need to consider their feelings as well.”
“I understand.” He huffed. “I figured it was something like that.”
She smiled, the one that always caught him off guard when she directed it at him. They continued on; him dropping off after about ten minutes, unable to keep up her pace any longer. She ran for another ten minutes, passing him. On his cool down lap, she stayed next to him, jogging in place until he completed the second. After that, she walked normally.
Recovering his breath, Quinn gave her a smile. “Well, I did my best.” He knew that she could have gone much longer, but he was still fairly happy that he’d lasted as long as he had. “Uh, I guess you are going to spar with Rick now?”
“For not being used to it, you lasted much longer than I thought you would. You’re welcome to watch.”
“I’ve been running in my room. The exercise machine I installed has a treadmill. It’s different running around the bay, though.” Harder on his feet than the machine design which favored low impact while still providing a full heavy workout. Running on the treadmill was like running on padded flooring. “Uh, I could watch, sure.” Watching violence didn’t bother him. He’d been fine with the fight scenes in recreations. It was just, he had no desire to do harm to anyone.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Quinn.” He recognized the way she looked at him, her eyes trailing over his face. She was judging how to treat him.
“I wouldn’t mind. I just wasn’t expecting it,” he assured her.
“For me to invite you?”
“Yeah, I thought you wouldn’t want me to, well, just to help with the whole keeping things under wraps thing?” He realized he did not know how to quantify her earlier request.
“Oh. I did not mean that I did not wish to be seen with you just that, well this,” she took his hand in hers, holding it lightly “Is alright. They’re going to know. I just have never been the sort to flaunt things in front of others, so to speak.”
“Ah, so just keeping it to handholding, which is a small display of affection. I understand.” He’d been researching this topic. So he knew that displays of affection had certain weights to them. With hand holding, being lower than a hug, kiss, or other things.
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He squeezed her palm against his, then did a quick peck since they were alone.
Having been running in the open space below the promenade, which had a wide open space on the outside, they moved to the gym. Which, to him, was the same as any other recreational space. Padded walls, floors made for a softer landing, and strength and conditioning equipment. All in varying shades of black and gray with silver accents. Not a large room, but their sparring explained the mats that were open and off to one side.
Rick, already present on arrival, acknowledged Quinn with a sharp nod, doing the same to Kira. “I’m ready when you are.”
“Two secs.” Kira removed her shoes by the edge of the mat.
Looking between the two, Quinn realized this would be the first time he would witness a full-on fight. He wondered if it would change the impact of it, seeing actual violence instead of the fake choreographed stunts he’d witnessed before. He also noted they did not wear protective equipment.
Rick didn’t come to play. No warm up and no warning. When she stepped onto the mat, he stepped towards her.
Kira stepped back. His net told him it was likely instinctive because of what they were doing. Rick smiled, the first that Quinn had seen, rather small still. Then he launched into it. Rick opposed his playing strategy in cards, becoming aggressively forward. He hardly went to defense, but it worked well for Kira, who ducked and moved under his advancements, and when she couldn’t avoid, she would block.
She didn’t continue to hold back, and in an opportune moment, she swept his legs out from under him, putting Rick on the ground. With a triumphant grin, she gave him a hand up. He paid her back a moment later with a swing that impacted her face directly. She’d misjudged, and the blow laid her flat upon the moment of contact. She would be looking at quite a large bruise not only on her face but on her hip if the sound of both were anything to tell by.
“Was that supposed to happen, or should I be concerned?” Quinn had been shifting from side to side, uncomfortable with what he just witnessed.
“No, I thought she was moving under.” Rick answered him, still standing upright.
It looked incredibly painful to him. But the whole fight looked pretty painful overall and unpleasant. This was the first hit that looked genuinely debilitating, and he was worried.
That was a slight understatement. He was extremely worried, but he did his best not to overreact, knowing that sparring was practicing combat. He knew that meant she would be hit, but not to that extent. Grasping and releasing the fabric of his pants, he twisted it. That blow left him very much wanting to put an end to it.
Kira got her hands up underneath her and spit on the ground. Something white fell out, and she starred for a second before swallowing. “You weren’t going to be able to pull all your momentum.”
Kira came back onto her knees and reached forward to pick up what came out. The thing she’d spat out was one of her molars.
“That is a tooth.” His brain immediately made the connection. The statement about as witty as he could be as he stared in open horror at both the tooth and the blood.
Trying to think of what to do in this instant, he was at a bit of a loss. “We have to get her to med bay if we want to get the tooth back in.” A slight note of panic fluttered in his voice. Nervous ticks betrayed his distress, as he could not remain still.
“I’m still perfectly capable of making my own way,” Kira said lightly, “But we are done for today, Rick.”
Rick grunted and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll clean up since I caused it.”
Kira nodded and went to stand. A little unsteady; her right leg stiffened, thigh muscles shaking like a shiver exclusively in that area. Placing her weight on her left, she rubbed that side. Quinn quickly examined and found nothing obviously broken.
“Capable doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. With your injuries, it’s optimal to put less stress on your body until you can be assessed.” Quinn perfectly recited what he’d read the last time he’d had to transport her to med bay. This time he didn’t have hundreds of drones swarming the ship that he could summon at a moment’s notice. It would take two or three minutes to do so.
So, he just went to her side and offered her a hand, which felt a bit lacking, but it was the quickest thing he could manage. His neural net back up fully, the projections for when a drone would arrive and when she could get to med bay, just walking, were the same.
“Quinn, I’m alright. I’ve had much worse. Trust me.” She opened her mouth as little as possible when speaking.
Rick grabbed supplies from a wall cabinet, as if he considered the matter closed. There was no apology issued either, something even Quinn noticed was missing, but he didn’t comment upon it. Instead, he said, “I am not sure why you thought that would make me feel better. This was clearly painful and you could permanently lose a tooth. Telling me you’ve had worse just makes me worry more, not less.”
She grimaced. “When I broke my ankle, you barely flinched. Bree can put my tooth back in with much less fuss. It will be alright.”
“You know why this is different,” he fired back. This was happening literally after the night where she’d managed to get through the last barrier between himself and her. It was a far cry from a woman he’d found mostly annoying breaking her ankle.
She repeated her exasperated expression before dropping it.
Quinn wasn’t fishing for an apology. Mostly because he was, at present, unaware that she had done anything wrong. Once he learned that there was sparring gear that she and Rick could have been using to prevent this, that would be another story.
Well, either way, he tugged her along as quickly as he could manage, not acknowledging that she wasn’t making this easier.
When they entered, they found Bree positioned over a slide scope. She’d straighten, not even looking at them as she went to the pod and cleared it to do a full body scan. The brunette was familiar to Quinn. They’d passed each other in the hall several times and had spoken briefly while picking up trays in the cafeteria. She’d been short with him, but he’d not thought anything of it.
“Is Rick behind you?” She asked with a sigh.
“Nope, just me today,” Kira said somewhat cheerfully, holding up her tooth. “I need you to plug this back in for me.”
“They were sparring. She took a serious blow to the face and likely bruised her hip when she fell.” Quinn said, filling in the details Kira tried to gloss over. Naturally, he’d replayed the memory on the way up. It had given him a general idea of the damage done to her by the blow.
Bree gave them both a deadpan look. “Yes, well,” Bree started, as if more irritated at the interruption than concerned for Kira. “This is a regular occurrence for them both.”
Kira shrugged it off and let go of Quinn’s hand to go to the scanner. The device had a flat area to lie on, with a white sheet draped over a cushioned bottom. The top had a solid foot wide half-circle. It slid back and forth via a rolling system. It looked like black glass but when Bree moved it to one side it lit up for commands a qwerty keyboard and other instant command buttons resting above it with the feedback system. Kira sat on the edge. She held out her tooth to Bree, who took it by the top as she scooted back.
“They should wear safety gear.” Quinn pointed out, since he was currently looking into ways to make sure this didn’t keep happening. Imagine his surprise to learn that there was plenty of safety gear she and Rick could have been using to make sure that they could spar without risk of serious injury.
“I have said the same thing. Both of them visit at least once a month.” Bree spoke sharply, her teeth clenched, strengthening her jaw. He recognized the aggravation, but it was not to the same degree as his own. She hit the start button and backed up as the scan began the half-circle, moving over Kira of its own accord. Bree’s description in her extended file labeled her as sweet, docile in her own way, but now it was obviously less so when it came to them sparring when she had the same opinions as Quinn.
“You’d miss us, Bree,” she teased the doctor.
Quinn glared at Kira. This was the first time in a while that he seemed upset with her. He would not belabor the point. He was just upset and unsure what to do about it. Knowing she didn’t want people making choices for her putting him in an awkward situation. He hadn’t realized caring for someone might involve letting them be a total idiot.
Bree finished the scan and then ran a light over Kira’s hip and face, which calmed the blood vessels underneath, so she did not look as if she’d taken a beating that morning. Then she took the tooth and had Kira open wide to reinsert it.
Kira remained perfectly still as Bree poked around in her mouth and pushed the tooth back in. Quinn noticed she’d not taken the time to numb anything or give pain medication throughout the process of doing so. Though she would run the same light inside her mouth to make sure the roots retook.
At that point Quinn realized he’d stood there watching. It felt awkward. He’d been so worried about Kira, he’d forgotten that they were in the med bay with a person he barely knew. The man shifted, uncomfortable suddenly.
Kira dropped down to rinse her mouth, and Bree sighed, looking at Quinn. “I suppose we haven’t properly introduced ourselves,” Bree sighed, looking at Quinn. “I’m Bree.”
Her hand extended his direction. The woman was softer than Kira, bright eyes instead of dark ones, sweeter features that were motherly instead of sharp. He’d called Kira pretty last night and he could recognize this woman was casually pretty if he wanted to, but instead he focused on returning the handshake, one firm pump, then a release. A considerable improvement from before. “Quinn.”
“Good as new. Thank you Bree.” Kira emerged, her smile back to being white as ever and full. She was on time for the handshake.
Bree drew her hand back after it as well, only not as quickly, but instead of tucking her hands away she’d bring it up to point a finger at Kira prodding her on her upper arm lightly. “I’m done patching you two up every day. The next time you come in here, it better be for an actual accident.”
Kira looked scolded, but only superficially, because the corners of her lips were trying not to come up as she said, “Yes, Doctor.”
“I don’t think she is going to listen to you,” Quinn observed dryly. Then he paused. He’d just, well, he didn’t know for sure that she wouldn’t listen to Bree. It was just, he assumed, from what he knew of Kira, she wouldn’t. So he’d pointed it out, but that was... Huh, had he just teased Kira?
Bree found neither of them funny. Her down-turned mouth a clear sign, as she said just as dryly back, “She never does, but at least she can leave me to my work now.” She motioned for the door, insinuating they take their leave.
Kira made a defensive hands up gesture before turning to go, calling out over her shoulder, “thank you, Doctor.” The same thinly veiled amusement fluttered into her tone. She cackled as they departed.
Quinn followed her out, his annoyance with her mixed with his feelings about finally teasing her confusing, she caught him off guard by a sudden topic change.
“I have to relieve Morgan for a while.”
“Okay, I should go take a shower.”
When he emerged heading towards the bridge, he found Jaden crawling out of an air vent. The boy’s physique small enough he could shoulder through some of them. Quinn cross-referenced their location within the ship. The vent’s next let out closest to Rick’s room. Jaden looked slightly defeated in his expression as he dragged out a small red tool bag he’d been using.
Jaden spotted him before continuing to crawl out. He affixed the grate. “Do you just wander around now?” Jaden asked impolitely.
“Yes.” Quinn wasn’t sure why the kid sounded so sullen about it. Besides the fact, he possibly already knew what Jaden was doing. Pattern recognition was rather simple for him. The kid’s method of attack clearly depended on sneaking into places he wasn’t supposed to get into and then leave a trap behind.
Jaden pushed the old screws back into place. The air vents were one of the few antiquated things left in the ship, but necessary in case of an attack where they needed to shut off air or direct it through the ship for aerosols.
He looked up at Quinn when he said yes, catching the shrug. “If Bree would stop harping about my studies, maybe I could too.”
“Do you not want to learn what she is teaching?”
“Nah, it ain’t that.” The boy straightened, shouldering his bag. “Some things are okay, but she’s got me writing essays.” That seemed to displease him highly, or at least, made his face look pinched.
“Okay,” the definition flashed across for him, “That doesn’t seem that hard.”
“Maybe not for you with all those things stuck in your head.” He tucked his thumbs into the front of his pants, giving him a quizzical look as he considered what he was going to do next. “Speaking of computers, Alec said you’re able to make or break almost anything. Is that right?”
That comment about things in his head got a slight frown from Quinn. It was technically accurate, but he didn’t like the phrasing. He also wasn’t wild about what Alec had apparently said he could do, but again, technically accurate. “Yes.”
“Even the scanners for rooms?” Jaden had a glint in his eye. This was what Kira had been afraid of and warned him about. She’d told him not to help him with anything he could not accomplish by his own means and might. Opening doors into places he shouldn’t be in was definitely above and beyond that.
But Quinn wasn’t sure what the kid was getting at. “I built the scanners, yes. Almost everything new on the ship I built myself.”
“Oh good, I need help to open a door.”
“If you can’t open it, then you aren’t supposed to go through it.”
“It’s just Rick’s room.”
“Oh, then I can’t open it, anyway. The locks have a built-in fail-safe to seal if someone tries to bypass them. The only way to override the fail-safe is with DNA and password verification. People are meant to have exclusive access to their rooms and the things I build perform their intended functions.”
There was, actually, a workaround even to this. During a red-alert all the doors on the ship automatically unlocked for safety but he would not explain that to Jaden.
Jaden popped his hands on his hips, looking as if he was deciding whether Quinn was telling the truth. “No matter,” he said, and his features contorted in a manner that said he had another idea. One that obviously didn’t involve Quinn as he took off, still going towards Rick’s room, which was around the corner.
Quinn tapped his foot as he thought about it before following Jaden. “You can’t get into Rick’s room, but what exactly are you trying to do?” Curious and, depending on what it was, he could help the kid.
“I was gonna switch out his shampoo.”
“Well, you can’t get into the room. I suppose you could set up a water nozzle with the solution to trigger when the door opens, though, at the right angle. If it was up in the ceiling, you could spray him down before he gets into the room.”
“How do I do that?”
The remark would soon turn into Quinn, helping him do that if he wasn’t careful.
Quinn didn’t do it for Jaden, but he showed the kid how to pop open the access hatch above Rick’s door. He suggested using a magnetic switch that would trigger when the door slid up into the ceiling, explaining what the correct depth would be for the trigger. Then, he did the math and wrote what angle to place the water nozzle at. It rested on Jaden to complete the prank, now that he had the knowledge of how to do it.
Jaden monopolized Quinn’s time for a short while and, despite his misgivings about learning, he learned quite a bit by having his help. He played with reversing the polarity of the magnets, fixing angles, and then learned with his hands by doing. By the time they were done, Rick would have bubblegum pink hair. Quinn wasn’t privy to the substance in the canister, but he’d find out if he showed up to dinner that night.
Quinn considered this to be in line with Kira’s instructions on the prank war. He left Jaden with the knowledge and the tools, and he would certainly learn the results eventually. For the moment, though, he went back to ambling around the ship.
Running into Max moments later, on his way down to hydroponics bay he invited Quinn along. Max intended on planting pumpkins that were left over from years before for the upcoming holidays. They worked in companionable silence until Max asked him, “Are you eating lunch with the Captain?”
“Maybe?” Quinn was aware of the time, always, but the reminder made him send a message up to Kira.
Half an hour later, he got a short message back, text only. ‘I don’t think I’ll be able to get away.’
Max was still in the cantine when he entered. Rick followed behind, hovering over his metal tray at the table, cutting up his meal into smaller bites. When Quinn approached, Rick asked, “Captain, get her tooth put back in?”
“Yes.”
“Good, it’s harder for them to take the second time around.” Rick commented.
Max eyed Rick curiously as he asked, “Are you going back to sparring again?”
“Back into old habits.” Rick took a bite, seemingly unphased.
“Bad habits if you aren’t using basic safety equipment.” Quinn observed not looking at Rick or Max as he ate, not realizing that this might be construed as him teasing someone again. He sounded a bit peeved as he said it. Though he felt nothing in regards to Rick, he was more annoyed with Kira. Sparring without proper precautions was definitely a very her thing to do, it was just also a very worrying thing for her to do.
“Safety equipment does not prepare you for the real world.”
Max attempted to change the subject. “Are we still running drills this afternoon?”
Rick nodded once.
“In point of fact, safety equipment is actually designed to prepare you for real-world scenarios without the risk of debilitating yourself during practice. You may be confused about its function.” Quinn informed Rick with a flat-level stare, not allowing him to move on quickly. “Would you like me to prove you wrong with a neatly compiled list of case studies on the matter? There are quite a few of them that prove that eschewing training equipment, contrary to popular belief, does little to improve the development of combat abilities in any meaningful way. However, it opens up those doing it to risk of long-term injury or death.”
Rick got under Quinn’s skin. A poor opinion with no scientific basis had already gotten the person Quinn cared about more than anything or anyone hurt. While he wouldn’t insist that they wear the gear, he sure as hell would not let them labor under the delusion that it was a good idea.
Rick laughed. It wasn’t broad or open like anyone else’s, but a deep chuckle that came from his chest. Perhaps not the reaction that Quinn looked for when he offered to give him studies. “You are a wonder, aren’t you?”
Max frowned at his laughter, opening his mouth to speak, but he was beat to it-
“She needs to take a beating and keep going,” Rick said coolly, rising with his tray. “She knows what she’s doing. If you’ve got a problem, take it up with her lovebird.”
“Rick!” Max went to follow, maybe to scold the man properly.
“While exposure to pain can build up a tolerance, there is no evidence that a person can undergo extreme trauma without going into shock. Safety equipment doesn’t remove the pain of the beating. In fact, with it, you both could go substantially longer, getting more practice at taking a beating without putting yourselves at risk. The importance of proper safety precautions during training has been witnessed and understood for thousands of years. That doesn’t stop being true because you disagree with it.” Quinn dropped into a monotone, no longer arguing with the man, simply informing him of the facts. “Kira and you are both adults. You may make your own decisions, but don’t sit there and try to argue with hard science just because you think that’s the way it should be done. You can beat yourselves senseless. Just know that scientists have proven well that there is little to no meaning in it.
“And yet you will not tell the captain this, will you?” The manic laugh Rick had exhibited earlier portrayed itself in the way he smiled then. Was it truly Kira that insisted they not use protective gear when he looked at Quinn like that?
“I’ve already made my feelings on the subject known to her. If she brings it up again, then yes, I would tell her it is a bad idea. If she tried to justify it, then I would inform her there is no scientific basis for it. Why would I...” There is a pause and he notes something as it is brought to his attention. “Ah, I see. No, I would not refrain from telling her something for fear of upsetting her and ruining my, quote-unquote, chances with her.”
Quinn returned to eating. Or perhaps he’d never really stopped.
“Good.” Rick dropped it as quickly as it started. Rick polished off his tray before asking, “You coming, Max?”
“Uh, if you’ll excuse me.” Max had other duties to attend to, but the quick back-and-forth spoke of his hesitation.
Quinn was the only one left to ponder. He wasn’t sure why he was so furious with Rick. Still he would have informed the man of his mistake regardless if it had not affected his emotional state.
He’d felt a lot of things and hadn’t liked how the man talked about his relationship with Kira. That was his, not Rick’s, it was not any business of the man’s and... Grinding his teeth, Quinn started towards his room, done with people for the day.
Before he could make a clean exit, Hela poked her head through the pass through. “Quinn?”
Hearing and responding were two different things, but Hela wanted him to take a tray up to the captain, who’d yet to come retrieve it or ask for it. Part of him did not wish to oblige her. He wished to hole up in his room, but the part that wished to see Kira won out. Checking her location, she was in a storage bay, not the bridge, with Watson. The tray in hand, he couldn’t turn back, so he continued.
The door opened silently, and Quinn overheard Watson speaking. His tone lacked emotion as he had been earlier. “And you’re willing to accept that?”
“I am.” Kira’s response sounded heated, and not in a good way.
“Toke did not raise you to be a fool, Kira. He could destroy us all if you upset him.”
“He wouldn’t.” She sounded absolutely certain.
“Hela sent me down with lunch,” Quinn spoke loudly. This wasn’t the first time he’d eavesdropped on the two, but he didn’t want to hear anymore. He’d liked Kira’s response, the certainty in it, and that was where he wanted things to end.
Watson clammed up immediately, and Kira stepped around a crate to see him. Her cheeks flushed with anger and wild eyes sought his. She softened, the tightness around her mouth less severe. No matter how much he overheard, she wasn’t upset by it.
“Thank you, Quinn.”
Watson did not round the corner.
“You’re welcome.” Even if he could not see the A.I., Quinn looked in that direction. His expression matching Kira’s before she’d seen him. “Are you alright?”
“I am.” The tray passed to her hands.
“I trust you.” Quinn had no desire to speak to Watson, or to remain while the two squabbled, but that was important for him to relay. He released her tray. His intent not to stay made clear by his sharp turn out.
Returning to the darkness of his room, it threatened to swallow him but there was always a light present to keep away the shadows, even if only in his mind. One that came by later and spent the night curled up against his chest, stealing his covers, and making sure he knew the depth of what his words meant to her.