Eve On Station

Chapter Fifteen

The buzzing of the door admittance signal woke Eve as she lay slumped over her office desk. At first, she felt a flash of annoyance at the noise, but that was quickly followed by gratefulness. She hadn't slept much the night before and after returning to her office from the Curie had needed to close her eyes for just a few minutes to recharge herself. Dreams had once more disturbed her rest and the door buzzer had thankfully snapped her out of the dream before it could take full hold. All Eve could remember was fighting for her life against some tentacled monstrosity in a swamp on a world she had never been to.

"Come in," Eve said as she rubbed at her eyes with her fingers to get the sleep dust out of them.

The door opened and Null came in and stopped dead. "You look like crap," they said.

"That has been the general consensus today and it's not over yet," agreed Eve.

"I feel kind of bad then for bringing you bad news, more bad news and still more bad news," replied Null. "Maybe I should have just emailed it to you."

"But you didn't," said Eve, half question and half statement.

"If I am being honest, I wanted to see you again," replied Null, "and after I delivered all the bad news, I could sneak in a request for a second date."

"You seem to have got the two things reversed then," Eve pointed out.

"Yeah, I am pretty lousy when it comes to relationships," replied Null. "So, what do you say to a second date? There is an old time movie theatre on Minus Three that shows classics. Tonight they are showing Ladyhawke."

"I've never seen that one," said Eve, sorting through the list of movies she had seen before in her mind.

"Great, it's one of my favourites and kind of romantic. I have to warn you though that second date rules are in effect."

"Meaning?" asked Eve with an arch of an eyebrow.

"That I get at least a kiss," teased Null. They paused and back tracked hastily at the expression they saw on Eve's face, "Hey, I was only kidding. No obligations at all."

"It's ok," Eve assured them. "I would love to see the movie with you. I just don't have a lot of experience with dating and relationships and you probably saw the look of panic on my face."

"Yeah, for just a second there, it looked like I had invited you to the ritual sacrifice of a baby," commented Null. "You stayed totally cool and calm while handling a bomb that could blow up the entire station, but the mention of a kiss has you in a tizzy. I sort of thought you were joking about it being your first date last time, but now I think you were serious."

"I was serious," replied Eve, finding it hard to meet Null's gaze and instead found herself staring down at her hands in her lap. "It's my job, and I don't mean just this one," said Eve waving an arm to encompass the office in a vague way. "It's hard to explain and parts of it I can't really tell you about, but all I've really known is my job and my duty. I don't know if I will be here in another month or gone to some other job, some other place where I am needed. I like you and I don't want to hurt you by forming a relationship that is going to get broken abruptly and probably permanently."

"I don't understand," said Null, their face radiating confusion. "Why can't you stay here as head of security? Why would you have to leave? If the company tries to reassign you, then quit the damn company. There are a lot of things that someone with your ability can do on a station like this."

"I wish it were that simple, I really do," replied Eve, finally looking up at Null's face. "Maybe I can tell you more later, maybe even tonight. I will have to think about it. Now, please give me all the bad news you brought."