forbidden - chris beck

Chapter 9

About two months later I experienced what had to be the worst day on this journey so far.

I'm not one to be sad or anything and if I am I'm usually pretty good at hiding it and keeping it to myself. But this day was different.

The day started out fine, but I found that when we had free time I could only think about how much I missed my parents. It was kind of stupid actually, I moved out four years ago but I would visit them weekly and tell my mom everything that's been happening while my dad cooked us the best meals ever. I missed the simplicity.

We called this the 'homesick virus'. It slowly made its way around the ship, affecting each member one by one and then when it had finished it would start right back up again. I'm guessing it was my turn.

I had one task for the day; Fixing the door to the Rec. apparently we had used it way too much and so it just got jammed half way through closing. I basically just needed to unscrew a few bolts to get it moving again.

"Collins are you going to be okay with the door? It's quiet heavy so just call any of us if you need help moving it." Commander Lewis smiled,

"Yeah, I'll see how I get on with it." I nodded and returned the smile.

I wasn't usually set the physical stuff due to my size and height, along with Johanssen, but there was no harm in trying once in a while.

She walked off to see how the others were doing. I think as time went on and the crew became a lot closer, the Commander realised she didn't have to be so strict and that we'd listen to her anyway. I'm glad she was a little more relaxed and happy. She needed to know she was doing an awesome job commanding this mission.

I grabbed the tools I needed and went over to the Rec to examine the door. I didn't waste time and began unhinging the bottom and sides of it. While I was doing it, I felt a tear stream down my face as a huge sensation of nausea came over me.

I tried to shake off my sadness and continued with my work, but I felt like I was going to break down into tears any minute.

It was time to start moving the door which meant physically pulling the gigantic thing until it was locked into place.

I tried to ignore my overpowering sadness and got into position to pull on the door. The thing would not budge no matter how many times I tried, so I stepped out to the hallway to find someone to help me and saw Vogel attending to an electrical fault on the ceiling.

"Hey Vogel, do you mind helping me with this door."

He stepped down from his ladder and smiled. "Of course."

I directed him to where I was working and in one swift movement he pulled the door into place.

I sighed and smiled with relief. "Thanks."

"No problem, tell me if you need help with anything else." He grinned and walked off back to his work.

I sighed and crouched down to screw the bolts back into the door. As I was doing so I sniffled slightly and then before I knew it, tears were steaming down my face and blurring my vision. I'd never felt like this before, but I think it was the fact that I was tired and really homesick.

I heard footsteps approaching nearby so I quickly wiped the tears from my face with my sleeve and moved my hair in front of my eyes slightly so whoever walked past didn't notice my emotional state. But they did.

From seeing the approaching silhouette I could make the figure out as Beck who looked like he was going to walk straight past me to wherever he was going. However, he did what I hope he wouldn't and stopped in his tracks while glancing over at me.

"Hey, what's wrong?" He said genuinely conversed perhaps because he's never seen me like this. In fact, none of the crew had seen me like this.

I kept my eyes low, not wanting him to see my crying. "It's nothing." I flashed a small smile to reassure him, but he wasn't buying it.

Beck took a few steps closer to where I was crouching. He leaned down to hold both my hands and pulled me up. Even then I refused to look into his eyes until he placed his hand on my chin forcing me to show him my face.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

When he saw that I'd been crying he pushed the hair out of my face. I don't know why, but feeling his touch against my skin seemed to calm me, it reminded me of home.

I looked up into his blue eyes, "I'm fine Beck, in just having an off day."

He sighed, "Missing home?" He asked as of coming from experience. I assume he'd already been through this phase.

I slowly moved  his hands from my face and gave a small nod. "Yeah, but I'm okay now."

Realising how concerned he looked I wanted to make sure he wasn't worrying about me. We were doing serous work on a mission that could go wrong very easily, the last thing he needed was to be preoccupied with my petty feelings. So I reached up and wrapped my arms around his built frame.

"Thank you." I whispered, leaning against his chest.

He immediately wrapped his arms around me in a tight embrace and placed his chin on top of my head. "I just hate it when you're upset."

After a few seconds I pulled back and then he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I'm not leaving here until you give me a genuine smile."

I showed him my best smile but he just shook his head. "Not good enough."
He stepped towards me with a grin and then all of a sudden began to tickle me.

"Beck stop!"

It was impossible not to laugh as loud as I did. I squirmed under his touch and tried to move away from him, but he just kept pulling me closer as he laughed in amusement.

"Ahem." Beck immediately stopped and we looked to the door to see the Commander. I expected an outburst from her but instead she walked off to check on the others.

"I should probably get back to work?" Beck made his way to the door.

"Yeah me too." My heart was still rapidly beating. I smiled as I picked the tools back up as a thought about what just happened, but then I realised we had to be more careful around Lewis. I was forgetting this was a serious mission, it was my job.

I had a feeling that Beck was going to be a big distraction. But maybe, that's exactly what I needed.