IV || [BL | MxM | Sci-Fi | Romance | Mystery]

The Machine | 6

For the relatively short time June, the medical officer has been in Theseus' crew, she's been through everything that can happen to a geology mission in open space, - including a delivery, an autopsy, and a case of smallpox that turned out to be Morrow's allergy to soy misdiagnosed by the med bay's AI.

But none of these could compare to dealing with Raymond Silver.

June had no patience for Ray. He didn't show up for the mandatory check-ups and ignored all the reminders. He still owed her his medical profile. She was pretty sure it was him, or him and Max, messing with her databases and software, albeit she couldn't find any proof. And the worst, she witnessed a good share of people with pent-up traumas in her career, but never saw anyone dismissing it so badly.

"I don't even know where to start here.. Sleep deprivation, physical and mental exhaustion, his blood tests are just horrible..." She'd happily send him off to the hospital at the orbital station, but he refused, or rather, rioted against it. 

"From now on, I forbid you to leave the med bay until June's special approval," Rachel signed the order, ignoring Ray's attempts to give her puppy eyes. "Consider it a disciplinary."

"But what about the investigation committee?"

"Max is doing just fine. We postponed the rest until your recovery so don't worry, no one is doing anything behind your back. You'll be back to it in..." She furrowed eyebrows at the medic's doomed grimace.

"Two weeks? At least," June sighed.

"Three weeks. Now, get some fucking rest."

Ray's face lit up at the quiet footsteps approaching. "Did you bring it?" 

"You'll get in trouble, and I'll get in trouble too." Iv slipped into the ward, looking at the med bay's hallway over the shoulder. 

"But did you bring it?"

"Yes...I just made a small change," Iv took Ray's wrist computer out of the pocket of his uniform. "If you use it for too long, I'll switch it off remotely."

"What are you, my mom?"

"I need to go back to the lab."

"Wait," Ray caught him by the arm before he stepped away from the bed. "I'm happy to see you back to normal, but are you really back to normal?"

"If you mean the memory clusters, some more got wiped out. Otherwise, it seems my self-imposed blackout worked well."

"??"

"After that drone incident, I hijacked some of my protocols and set them up to prevent major overloads. Now I can minimize the damage by shutting down everything but essentials..." Iv paused, noticing Ray's odd expression."...Sorry I scared you. It took me longer to recover than I thought. I was still partially conscious and paused the recovery when you passed out... Anyway...Will you be ok?"

"I guess," Ray heaved a sigh of relief. "I'll be back on track in no time."

"Please take care. I am worried about you."

"...??..you are..." But Iv already slipped out of the room, and Ray watched the door closing, the vacuum taking over the ward again."Why...I don't deserve any of your kindness..." 

He pulled the duvet over his head and buried the face in the knees.

"They already started repairing the ship. I wanted to take a look at that new shuttle, but there were too many people around."

"You don't like going out much, do you," Ray squeezed out a faint smile.

"I prefer closed spaces I'm familiar with. Too much going on overwhelms me."

"Well, the same quiet and boring here," he glared at the wrist computer on the bedside shelf, untouched since Iv put it there. "But I guess I needed this downtime, to think...about many things. I dreaded this for quite a while, I knew it would be painful...but in the end, not as bad as I assumed...eh..sorry my babbling...may I ask you a thing?"

Iv gave him a light nod.

"If you like things and people...Can you also love?... I mean...Did you love Damian?"

There was a flicker of curiosity flashing across Iv's face. "I once asked him about love. He said there are very complex things, way beyond mere chemicals or neural impulses."

"So?"

"I want to believe I did. It doesn't matter."

"Why? Sorry, I don't understand."

"He didn't need my companionship. He might have been alone, but he was never lonely. She was always there for him."

"I see," Ray's gaze sunk.

"You know, it's the biggest difference I noticed between you two. Somehow you don't acknowledge the people around care about you, or you just deny it, I can't tell. You're rarely alone, but you're always locked up in your mind, and you seem very lonely."

"Please, stop..." Ray's hands clenched to the duvet.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound..."

"No, you're right. But I am not lonely if someone...if you're thinking of me, at least sometimes." 

"It's nice to know that." 

Ray raised his eyes to see a soft smile touching Iv's face, and for a fraction of a second, he felt both the universe and his heart stop.

The first thing he noticed was the bush of lush green leaves on the counter.

"Ah, good that it's back too."

"Trent brought it last week. He wanted to see you too, but Commander banned all visits."

"Were you just sneaking in all the time, you little rogue?" Ray landed in the chair and leaned back. It felt great. He took off the wrist computer and tossed it into the drawer.

"Glad you behaved."

"I took on Rachel's advice. It's mostly wiped out, anyway."

"The tablet broke too. Some files remained, but I couldn't restore any of my sketches."

"Just take my papers if you wish." Ray couldn't but chuckle when Iv grabbed the entire block, then gave it a thought and put a few spare sheets back. "Alright... they didn't bring the new servers yet, guess more free time for me then... I'll need your help with something first. Let's take a short walk."

The empty hallways were filled with the distant rumbling of engines. For the first time ever, Ray caught himself enjoying that sound. 

Max's workshop was a five-minute stroll; Ray assumed Max already read his message and dialed the door code.

As it opened, a thundering wave almost kicked him off his feet. Submerged in the cacophony of some thrash metal, Max didn't even notice the visitors, being busy playing an air guitar on top of his desk. 

Ray swiftly pushed the button to close the door, exchanged flabbergasted looks with Iv, and they headed back.