34. The Last Almost #4
"Right. Yeah, of course." Charlie cleared her throat. "Well, Tavi added some features. Like playing through the sound system in a specific room."
She lifted her hands, indicating the room around them and the sound pouring into it through the speakers.
"And autoshuffle."
Reyna watched Charlie for a moment.
"And what exactly does autoshuffle do on this program Tavi made?"
"It plays more songs at random. One right after another, from any of them in the whole library.
I use it with Tavi when we work in Engineering.
There's something kind of freeing about letting the program pick for you and not knowing what's coming next.
" She laughed. "Even if I do know every song already. "
Reyna didn't say anything.
She could tell Charlie was nervous about something, that she was saying more than she needed to. Reyna listened to all of it. Truthfully, she would have listened to Charlie Wickett read a supply manifest.
But the song overhead had been working on her the whole time it played.
"Do you know what song this is?" The question came out softly.
"Yes."
And Charlie didn't say anything else. She just stood there, a few feet away, breathing heavily with her eyes on Reyna.
"What is it called, Charlie?"
Charlie took a breath.
"It's called 'Into the Mystic.'"
And neither of them said anything after that.
The man's singing voice moved through the Observation Room like something alive. It was warm, reaching, unhurried. Reyna immediately understood that this was the kind of song that makes a room feel smaller, where the space between two people feels infinite and impossible to bear.
Both their smiles faded into something fragile. But to Reyna, it felt enormous and months in the making.
The room changed. The laughter was still warm in her chest, the breathlessness still close, but the music was pulling her somewhere different now. Somewhere Reyna had been circling for months.
And this time, she let it pull her.
She walked slowly toward Charlie, keeping her gaze.
Reyna walked towards the woman who had pulled her out of a spiral with a singer named Whitney and a ridiculous amount of dancing, walked towards the woman whose face had been telling her everything she needed to see for months, and towards the silence that said more than any confession could.
She walked towards Charlie because she was done wasting time.
Reyna stopped right in front of her, close enough to her to see the brown and green mix of color in her eyes. It was more beautiful than any constellation Reyna had ever seen.
Reyna could hear Charlie's ragged breathing. But she knew this was the only chance she might get.
She closed her eyes, took a deep, long, deliberate breath, and made a decision that her heart had already made a long time ago.
She opened her eyes and slowly, gently, lifted her arms to wrap them around Charlie's neck.
Then she leaned in.
And started to sway to the music.
It took Charlie a moment, but Reyna felt every part of Charlie's reaction. She felt a hitch in Charlie's breath against her. She saw her heartbeat pulse in her neck from shock. There was even a brief second where Charlie did absolutely nothing at all.
But then Charlie committed.
Fully.
Charlie folded her arms around Reyna and pulled her in close, and Reyna felt Charlie melt into her as the song moved through them both.
They drifted together, no formal dance positions this time. Just two bodies pressed close, breathing together, feeling the ache of the music everywhere it could reach.
Charlie pressed her temple against Reyna's, and Reyna's response was immediate. She cradled Charlie against her, one hand sliding into Charlie's hair, holding her there, not letting go. If she had anything to say about it, she would make sure there would be no space between them.
Reyna felt her markings vibrate against Charlie's skin. Charlie's skin against her gold had created a response she had never experienced before. It went through her like wildfire, and she made no move at all to stop it.
For two minutes, they let themselves have this.
Charlie's breath was warm against her cheek. Reyna's fingers had curled into the back of Charlie's shirt, holding on as if she were afraid to let go, because some part of her was.
Then the song ended.
Silence and the nebula light surrounded them. But they still held on to each other, breathing heavily.
Reyna pulled back, just far enough to see Charlie's face.
Reyna felt the first tear slide down her cheek as her eyes filled.
She didn't try to hide it. And in the starlight, with Charlie's arms still around her, the remnants of her skin still warm against Reyna's temple, and Charlie's face the most honest thing she had ever seen, Reyna remembered something she wanted to correct right this instant.
"Do you remember what you said, right here in this room, after we found out about your age slowing? Do you remember what you told me you were worried was gone now because Katie was gone?"
She watched Charlie's throat bob as she swallowed.
"I remember."
"Tell me."
"That I mattered to her."
"And?"
"And I didn't think anyone would ever feel that way about me again."
Reyna closed her eyes, feeling tears fall down her cheeks.
"You matter, Charlie—"
Reyna let out a staggered, shaky breath, and then opened her eyes again.
"Jesus, you matter to me."
Charlie's eyes went wide as her hands tightened on Reyna's waist.
Reyna leaned closer. Into the silence, and the warmth, and the space where the next words would change everything, where every instance of holding back would end in the one sentence she'd been refusing to say since an Earthling fell out of the sky, landing in Borran's kitchen, and she'd placed her hand on a human's heart without words.
Because that's when she knew. She understood that now.
"Charlie, I—"
And then the ship's emergency alarm wailed.
No.
"brIDGE TO CAPTAIN SOLAS."
The ship's master comm, cutting through everything.
"CAPTAIN, WE ARE RECEIVING A DISTRESS SIGNAL. YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUIRED ON THE brIDGE."
Torvax's voice.
The confession died in the space between Reyna's mouth and the siren. One word away.
The universe stole it.
Reyna stepped back and her hands slipped away from Charlie slowly, reluctantly, fingers trailing.
"I have to—"
"Go," Charlie said, her voice soft and understanding.
Reyna looked at Charlie one more time, finding nothing but warmth in the eyes looking back at her. Then she made efforts to fold the softness away behind duty. She nodded curtly, then turned and moved toward the door.
But at the threshold, she stopped, something breaking through the composure she'd tried to assemble.
She turned back without a second thought, a decision her body made before her mind could intervene.
She crossed back to Charlie in three quick strides and pulled her into an embrace.
Reyna's arms wrapped around Charlie's shoulders. Soon, she felt Charlie's arms come up around her back, both of them holding on to one another. Reyna's face pressed into Charlie's hair as Charlie's hands gripped the back of Reyna's shirt.
"Thank you," Reyna whispered. "For the dances."
"CAPTAIN SOLAS, YOUR PRESENCE IS REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY."
They didn't let go right away. Instead, Reyna placed the lightest kiss against Charlie’s cheek before finally pulling away.
When she did, her eyes were still wet. She held Charlie's gaze for one more heartbeat, and everything was in it.
Everything she hadn't said. Everything she would make sure was about to change.
Then she turned and walked toward the door, footsteps measured, shoulders set for the emergency that awaited her.
She didn't look back.
The corridor swallowed her. All she could hear were her boots on the deck plating and the hum of the environmental systems. But then there was the ghost of Charlie's arms still warm around her waist.
She pressed her hand against the corridor wall and stopped walking.
She had been ready, she had decided not to wait anymore or waste any additional chances.
She'd pulled Charlie to her and felt her skin against her own, and was prepared to say the truest sentence of her life into the space between them.
Five more minutes and she would have said all the rest as well. Every word she had been sealing away.
The alarm robbed her.
Tears she could wipe away. Her markings she could hold. But she couldn't take back missed opportunities. She couldn't regain time wasted.
She stood in the corridor and made a vow.
I will make this right.
Then she straightened and wiped her eyes.
I will make this right as soon as this emergency is handled.
And Captain Reyna Solas walked to the Bridge.