A past that never is

This chappie (I would say whole fic but I’d be lying) is for my beta reader Jenny, you may notice her little appearance in this chapter.

I got of the top of the ladder on the main deck. Six days after being attacked by Drakis, I couldn’t stand doing nothing all day.

“Ready to get back to it?” AK greeted me.

“Hell yes. What have we got?” I asked him as I grabbed a headset.

“There in there trying to make contact with Reactor. Going good so far.” He turned to look at me and his eye widened.

“Jesus, you look like shit.”

“Thanks AK. I wouldn’t talk if I were you, you’re not that great looking yourself.” I shot back.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been doing your job as well as my own, you’d look like shit to.” He said.

“Uhh...I thought I already did? Well at least this new girl will know who the operators are, because we both look like something that was dragged along behind the ship for a few miles.” I grinned at him. He snorted with laughter.

“Ah, yes but we’re the best looking operators.”

“Right at this moment? Jeez the other operators in the fleet must be fugly. Now get out of my chair and get lost, or better yet go get some sleep.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He handed me the headset and jumped down of the seat.

“I shall see you some time next week.” He gave a mock salute and left.

“I missed you so much, baby.” I said half jokingly to the monitors. AK had left some notes for me, about what was going on. Apparently the Nebachadnezzar had joined us in our search for Reactor. The phone rang in my headset.

“Operator.” I said.

“Shifter? Where’s AK?” Roland asked.

“If he has any sense he’s probably sleeping.” There was silence for a few moments.

“You’re not well enough-”

“Do we really have time for this now? I am going to assume that you rang me for some other reason than to tell me I can’t work. What do you need?” I asked. Yeah, I’m probably going to get in a little trouble for that.

“An exit.” He said. I tapped away at a few keys, bringing up maps of where he and the others were.

“Only exit near you is a videoshop called ‘Blockbusters’, turn around and go back the way you just came, it’s on your left.” I said.

“Got it.” He snapped and hung up the phone.

((Second person POV, or (once again) whatever it’s called.))

Roland ran down the street, Maggie close on his heels and Colt bringing up the rear. They finally got to the videoshop, it’s front was a bright, almost blinding yellow. He pushed the door open, there were no customers in the shop, only one staff member stood behind a counter, a woman with light brown hair and she had a cross eyed appearance. Roland could hear the phone ringing as he approached the counter, the woman moved off to answer it and he pulled out a gun from inside his jacket.

“I’m sure you don’t mind if we answer that.” He said. The woman stared at the gun in his hand and nodded slowly.

“Sure go ahead. Please don’t shoot me.” She said. Roland grimaced at the sound of her deep nasal, gravelly voice.

“Colt, you first.” He said over his shoulder, keeping the gun on the woman. Colt leaped over the counter and grabbed the phone, pressing it to his ear and then he was gone. Maggie hung the phone back on the hook and waited for it to ring again. When the phone in Rolands pocket started ringing, he felt around inside and pulled the phone out, flipping it open.

“What is it, Shifter?” He asked.

“Agents, Captain. They are in your vicinity.” The phone behind the counter rang again and Maggie picked it up. Then Roland moved behind the counter. The phone started ringing again, and he was about to pick it up, but turned back to the woman.

“Thank you...” He said.

“Jennifer, my name is Jennifer Ray. Please don’t hurt me, I’m to young and sexy to die!” She begged.

“I’m not going to hurt you Jennifer Ray. I wanted to say thank you.” He said.

“Thank God.” She whispered.

((Shifters POV))

“What the hell is he doing?” Colt asked incredulously. Shifter shrugged and turned back to her monitors.

“Pick it up, Roland, before she turns pick the damn thing up.” She whispered. And then he did it; Maggie pulled the spike out of his head. He stood up and glared at me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” He snapped. I met his look squarely.

“I need a break from doing nothing. Have you seen AK lately? He looks like crap because he’s doing the job of two people.” I replied. He sighed, then seemed to notice that we had an audience, he gestured for me to follow him.

“Do you seriously expect me to believe that you only did this to give AK a break?” He asked.

“No, I don’t. But I already told you that I tired of sitting around and having nothing but the walls of our quarter’s to stare at. I needed to get out of there, if just for a little while. Look, I know that we’re going to have differences of opinion, especially now that we’re together. If I was anyone else on this ship you’d probably ask me if I was sure I was up to working and if I said yes you’d just tell me to keep an eye on myself and take a break if I needed it. But instead you’re jumping down my throat. I might come to regret saying this, but do you think that when we’re both ‘on duty’ you could treat me the same as you do any of the others?” I said. He sighed and lowered his head.

“Am I not allowed to treat you any differently then?”

“Not when the others start noticing it. Come on, Roland it won’t be that hard. Ill even help by referring to you only as ‘Captain’ when we’re working.” He laughed at that.

“What was the story with that girl in the videoshop?” I asked, my eyes narrowing.

“I was just thanking her that’s all, at least she didn’t turn into an agent and I’d have had to kill her.” He shrugged as he said it

“Are you sure that’s all it was?” I asked.

“You’re not jealous are you?” He said.

“No...well maybe a little. I saw her code and you were hanging around her when it really wasn’t safe to do that. You must have had some reason.” I said. He shrugged again.

“Not really. Hey come on, you have nothing to worry about. I love your, remember?”

“Yeah, it’s just that. I found out that we were working with the Nebachadnezzar and well Morpheus is not going to be happy when he finds out.”

“About us, you mean?” He asked. I nodded.

“He has this idea that he has the right to tell me what to do with my life.” I muttered.

“Hmm...we’ll just mention ‘the one’ and he’ll forget all about us.” He grinned down at me as he pulled me into a hug and kissed my cheek.

“Oh, yeah like it’s going to be that easy. No he’s gonna stick his nose in and tell us that we’re not right for each other and then he’ll come with all sort of shitty reasons why.”

“If everyone approved of what everyone else did, then the world would be very boring, wouldn’t it? Don’t worry we’ll deal with him when the time comes to do so.”