37. It’s Mutual
THIRTY-SEVEN
IT’S MUTUAL
CHARLIE
The ceiling looked funny. That was the first thing Charlie noticed.
And she was lying down. That was the second.
Charlie lay there and worked on orienting herself, turning her thoughts over when somebody's hands tilted her head about four degrees.
"Don't move."
Kess.
"I wasn't going to," Charlie argued.
"You were absolutely going to. Your face told me."
Charlie's mouth tasted like a penny. The left side of her head hurt way more than it ever had a right to, and that same funny ceiling began to clear up into Med Bay. Her eyes moved and centered on Kess Pheras directly over her, using a scanner near the top of Charlie's head.
"Where's Reyna?"
Kess looked down at her.
"And hello to you, too, Earthling," Kess grumbled. "Yeah, you're welcome for taking care of your busted head, smart ass."
Charlie had the wherewithal to look back at Kess. "Sorry. Hello. Thank you for fixing my..." She stopped. "Wait, I'm hurt?"
"No, you're sitting in Med Bay for a nap," Kess said, turning back to the display over Charlie's bed as she moved Charlie's head three degrees the other direction.
"Yes, you're hurt. Got knocked on the head pretty good.
But thanks to the marvels of Coalition medicine, and your stubborn attitude, you'll be just fine.
You're welcome." Kess looked down at her once more. "Again."
"Thank you," Charlie said, this time in earnest.
As she lay there, the memories came back. The Palus, the colonists, Feodar, the beam slipping.
Her datapad. Heroes.
"Where's Reyna?"
"Gods, woman," Kess said flatly. "Do you know what perseveration is?"
"No."
"It's a medical turn for when a head injury makes you say the same thing over and over." Kess didn't say anything further or look down again, so Charlie lay still and let her work.
"Reyna's still on the Bridge finishing the mission," Kess supplied soon after.
"Oh."
Charlie looked at the ceiling.
Kess blew out a breath.
"She needed something to do," Kess added. "Scratch that, I needed something for her to do." She turned Charlie's head another two degrees. "She was pacing around here like a Vryx with a drug problem."
Charlie thought about that.
"What's a 'Vryx'?"
Kess didn't answer.
"Did it need medical attention?" Charlie said. "Is that why she was pacing?"
Kess looked down at her.
"What?" Charlie said. "I can't ask questions?"
Kess picked up something out of Charlie's eyeline. "Gods, you're both idiots, I swear."
"Beg pardon?"
Then Kess finally stopped. Her hands went still on either side of Charlie's head, and she looked down at her from about a foot away.
"Charlie. She was pacing around here because of you."
Charlie didn't move.
Somewhere across the bay a machine was beeping.
"... what?" Charlie asked quietly.
Kess threw up both hands.
"You two are so set on the other one not—"
And stopped.
"Not what?"
Charlie's reaction must have shown on her face, because Kess looked away.
"Not what, Kess?"
Then Kess looked back at her, and though you could see she was still annoyed, underneath it she was looking at Charlie the way Helen used to. Like Charlie was being an idiot about something, but it was going to be fine.
Kess took a breath. Her shoulders came down.
"Get up."
"Sorry?"
"I said get up. You're not 100% but you're about 99.9%, and that's good enough for me in the current circumstances."
"What current circumstances?" Charlie asked as she sat up. Kess began pulling all the monitors and sensors off her arms and from her head.
"You have a head injury. Don't go drinking Borran's unrestricted wine or taking fight lessons from Tavi in the fitness center." Kess pulled the last sensor off Charlie's forehead, taking a few strands of hair with it.
"Ow," Charlie said, dragging out the word.
"You'll survive," Kess replied. Then she stopped again and looked Charlie right in the eye.
"Go to her quarters," she said. "I'll have her meet you there."
Charlie blinked.
"Whose quarters?"
Kess didn't take her eyes away.
"The Captain's."
REYNA
Med Bay was practically empty.
There was one lone technician at the far counter with a tray, and the three colonists were in the beds along the wall. One had his arm in a field brace and was asleep sitting up.
The table in the middle of the room had a light over it with nobody on it.
"Where is she."
The technician looked up and found Reyna standing next to his console. To his credit, he only took about a second and a half to give her an answer.
“Who, Captain?”
“Wickett,” Reyna said, the strain in her voice evident.
It was clear the technician heard the anxiety in Reyna’s voice. "She's cleared,” he said gently. “Doctor Pheras walked her out."
"Where."
"I don’t know, Captain. The Doctor went with her."
Reyna turned for the door and nearly walked into Kess coming through it.
“Where is she, Kess?”
Kess looked at her, and seemed to take in the whole state of her. Her chest was heaving, her hair was in her face, and she’d spent nineteen hours on her feet.
But then Reyna witnessed a genuine smile spread across Kess’s face.
“You finally figured it out, huh?”
“Figured what out?”
“That it’s mutual.”
Reyna’s mouth opened. “How did you—” She stopped. “What makes you think—”
And Kess laughed, out loud, the sound filling the Med Bay.
“Kess, where—”
“Your quarters.” Kess jerked her chin toward the door. “She’s waiting for you, Rey.”
Reyna didn’t move.
Kess had known. The whole time.
“Go.”
Reyna swept through the Emberkind at a speed she didn't even know she could possess.
She went past the corridor on Six where she'd come around a bend and found a human woman standing with her palm flat against the bulkhead.
She went past the corner on Twelve where Charlie had come around it too fast and Reyna had put a hand out, catching her by the arm.
She went past Engineering, the home of her Chief Engineer.
She went past the galley, where there were seats at a counter where two insomniacs laughed.
She went past the library, where Charlie had sat on the floor and told her about a wall that tried to stop love.
And then she went past the Observation Room, where Charlie Wickett had been sitting hours ago, waiting for Reyna.
Every single room on this ship.
Reyna Solas ran through her own ship, realizing there was nowhere on it that woman hadn't gotten to. She hadn't allowed it. Nobody had asked her. And frankly, she couldn't remember ever being this glad.
As she ran down a corridor on Deck Four with her chest burning and her hair in her face, she realized there was one place Charlie had not yet made her mark.
Reyna came around the last corner and, at the end of a corridor she'd walked her entire adult life, were her quarters.
The door was closed, the way it always was, light slipping out underneath it.
Reyna stopped.
Charlie had made her way into every room and every heart on this vessel without anybody having to do a thing about it. She just happened, and Reyna had watched, never once wanting to stop it.
But not this room. This room was the one place that was never going to happen on its own.
Somebody was going to have to open the door.
Reyna looked at a strip of light on the deck plating, and it was the best thing she'd ever seen in her life.
She walked to her own door and put her hand flat against it, pushing it open and walking in.