2.17.1

Between People

Astrid awoke a couple hours later. She found herself in Med Lab, slumped in the chair, with her tablet askew in her lap.

Tenya proved absent, and Doctor Ishioka seemed to have retired to her converted quarters just a door away.

Dell, however, remained on the table in front of the specialist.

With a hand clumsy in her haze, Astrid wiped away an embarrassing amount of drool on her chin, and from the arm upon which she’d rested.

A short snort made her eyes blink glassily to discover what woke her.

“Sexy,” Romo teased shortly. His admittance into the Lab must have stirred her, she guessed.

“Hey.” She quickly collected herself, as best she could. It seemed the day’s battle really took it out of her. “How’d the interrogation go? Are we ready for debrief?”

“Nah. The only thing I can get out of her so far is her name. Ava Owens.” Romo came to stand near Dell’s bed. He didn’t touch the technician, but his eyes never left him. “We’re going to have to get that girl into a proper interrogation room. She’s crazy.”

“What, like… Rue, crazy?” Astrid wondered.

Romo didn’t look at her, but he shrugged. “No. Not angry-crazy. Out-of-touch, trauma-based crazy. She’s rambling but not really saying much. She seems to think her older brother is going to get her out of this.”

The specialist moved her data-tablet aside to an empty exam table and leaned forward to hear more.

“I looked into it,” Romo explained further. “He’s just a lieutenant junior-grade. Anders has more power than he does. He can’t do anything to help her out of this.”

“You think he knows about what she’s been up to?”

“I’m about to bring it to the captain. And see what he wants to do with it,” Romo concluded.

“I guess crazy is kind of useless in your line of work, huh?”

Romo sighed and finally pulled himself out of the gaze he kept transfixed on Dell. He gave a small smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah. It’s the worst.”

Astrid stretched on her feet.

“Here,” she told him. “You should sit. It’s been a long day.”

At first Romo looked to demure, but Astrid headed off his refusal. “Seriously, I think I’ve got my beauty sleep. Your turn.”

She moved out of the way and all but herded him into the seat.

Browbeat into submission, Romo sank in with a groaning exhale.

Astrid took Tenya’s former position, to lean against the table and get the blood flowing into her limbs again.

She folded her arms thoughtfully.

“So…” Romo invited after a long moment. “I hear we’re getting a Guardian?”

“Temporarily,” she informed him. “Anders thought it’d be good to have someone recognizable when we find the kids. We’re waiting on him to help the Keeper sort out Sanctuary business.”

“And you don’t want to be involved in that…?” Romo queried.

Astrid tilted her head at his subtle probe. “Probably says something unfortunate about me, doesn’t it, Interrogator?”

“It indicates you’re trying to create some emotional distance. Or maybe that you’ve already found it.”

Astrid’s brow furrowed. “I care. Very much.”

“Of course, you do,” Romo defended under her scowl. “But you’ve got a Sanctuary half-full of Channelers a five-minute walk away, and a whole night you could be spending with them. And you’re here. I think any behavior analyst would say that pretty distinctly reveals who your ‘people’ are.”

“They’re still my people,” Astrid relented. “Just not…”

“Us?”

“You got me, Answer Man.”

Romo produced the smallest simper on his lips.

Time slipped by. Astrid couldn’t think of anything else to say. But neither could she find good enough reason to leave Romo there to sit it out alone.

Something in him felt pained. It clung to him under his white noise, and Astrid felt drawn to it.

Twice her eyes and Romo’s met. Twice he looked like he wanted to say something and didn’t.

The third time, however, he finally relented.

“Dell and I have been together three years.”

Dumbstruck, it took Astrid several blinks to process she’d heard, and inferred, what he intended. Such an earnest confession left her winded. And self-conscious.

“Wow, I am absolutely oblivious to this stuff.”

The embarrassment of being caught sharing a moment with Anders diminished under the revelation she somehow missed a committed relationship right before her eyes.

She so easily recalled being envious of how close and easy Dell and Romo’s relationship seemed when she first met them. And yet, somehow, it didn’t even occur to her.

“Don’t take it so hard,” Romo answered tiredly. “Intel Agent, remember? Especially good at the secrecy thing. Besides. It’s better for everyone that it not be obvious.”

Astrid fell mute. This time, when she looked to Dell’s sleeping form, all the anxiety that seeped under the agent’s composure made perfect sense. Like she’d only seen the picture in black and white, and now, stood no longer colorblind.

“That’s why you supported me on Tetris,” she supposed. “When I went back for him.”

“No.” Romo immediately rejected the thought. “I wanted to be the one. That’s what a relationship does to you. But I supported you because I knew you could do it. And you were right, you could find him easier. It was the right call.

“It just meant more to me that he made it out alive.”

Astrid turned her face to Romo. For a moment, she saw him differently. More evidence, she realized, as to why it mattered that such things never affect the crew. She corrected herself and looked forward once again.

But Romo inclined his head to the man a meter away.

“Dell, he’s always been the patient one. Always ready to pace me down and remind me we have time. I could really use some of that now.

Astrid reached for Romo’s hand.

“He’ll be back up and telling you to calm down before you know it,” she told him. “Could be any minute now.”

Romo cast his eyes to the bed table, resigned. “Yeah. Any minute now.”

~~~

After a restless night, Eames arrived in the morning. Regrettably, the captain could no longer wait for Dell before holding council.

The team grouped up in the War Room, to meet their new addition to the crew.

Eames, however, looked even more tired than they. His hair lay combed in golden waves, dark at the root to match his brows. Warm chestnut eyes dulled with exhaustion, but he brought his gear and supplies, as well as a pulsar stick. The last of which, Astrid willed herself to ignore.

It proved harder than she imagined it should be. After all, the tools were non-lethal. But nonetheless, the effects left a scar on her nerves. Just being in the same room with such a device, even in the hand of a chosen ally, kept her from feeling fully comfortable.

With him, Eames also brought the list. Another series of names of the missing, and the dead.

Fewer names this time. Not none, but fewer. Astrid tried to focus on that. And not that she now could match a face to several. “Menloh”. “Celeste”. “Riley Ann”. “Victoria”.

“Eames, is it?” The captain shook hands with the man. “Is that a first name or last?”

“First,” the Guardian replied. “Eames Avery.”

The captain nodded. “I hear you guided my men through the Sanctuary. Are you sure you want to leave it?”

Eames passed a glance over each of the team before he answered.

“It seems the danger has passed for Mercedes. Your officer suggested the enemy won’t be back. But that you intend to chase down these people?”

“They’re called the Static Opposition,” Tenya named for him. “And they’ve been an active anti-Channeler group for over a year now. We found them through those energy weapons you saw.”

“We hit them pretty hard before,” Anders added. “Even arrested their original leaders. But it seems the organization has moved on to new plans.”

“You’ll excuse us if we’re protective with information,” Captain London interjected before the team shared more. “We had a serious security breach of intel relatively recently. And while I am glad to have you, you must understand that you are not considered part of my staff directly.

“I appreciate your desire to help, but your involvement may well be limited to little more than a formality in representation. At most, we can only hope to foster a better relationship with your faction.”

“We’re not a formal group, you know that, right?” Eames redirected. “This job is still civilian work. We go through training, so we know how best to protect our wards from themselves and keep the Sanctuary secure. But little else.”

“I expected as much,” London replied. “I’ll have my intel agent do a background check, however. And my people will keep an eye on you. Again, it’s nothing personal.”

The captain waved a hand in a show of levity.

“On the matter of security, has your Keeper extended his invitation to Raphael and its people?”

“He has. No word yet if they’ll accept. I fear he may have dropped the wrong name.”

“What do you mean?” Anders peered at the vague allusion. Until Eames nodded toward the specialist.

“Oh.” Astrid sighed.

“It might work. They didn’t outright say no,” Eames suggested. Though, he himself seemed annoyed by Karsten’s tactic. “I don’t see how it should matter. You’ll be gone by the time they’d arrive anyway. But knowing the recommendation comes from the first Free Channeler could be either a great endorsement or a red flag. Depends on who’s on the other end.”

The specialist felt a crease amass between her brows. Her lips parted to defend that, of course, she wasn’t the only Free Channeler. But neither could she reveal the others they recently discovered. And the first sanctioned Free Channeler, she may very well be.

“It’s not a problem for you we have ‘Free Channeler’ aboard?” Tenya shifted her weight and leaned her body closer to Astrid.

“I’ve lived with Channelers most my life now,” Eames articulated. “I know the difference between when they’re a threat and when they aren’t. And after what I saw yesterday… let’s just say I’m willing to reserve judgement.”

He then turned his attention back to Astrid.

“That isn’t to say I won’t be watching. It will be interesting to observe for myself what you’ve decided to do with the liberty you’ve been granted. It's important for the Guardians to witness that, too.”