Interstellar → Chris Beck

S O L 6 4

MAIA SAT PERCHED on top of the mattress she had woken up on a mere ten days ago. She was back in the infirmary, sitting quietly as she waited for Beck. She was finally getting her stitches out and she was more than ecstatic because of it. The original plan was to have them taken out on sol fifty-eight, but she had accidentally ripped them out in her sleep on sol fifty-five, thus reopening her wound and injuring herself worse than she had already been. Although worried all the same, Beck had been thoroughly amused with the fact of it, as had Johanssen and Martinez, while Maia was quite perturbed because of it, more-so because of the blood she had to clean up and the pain she had been met with.

Though it seemed as if a horrid amount of physical pain had been dumped onto Maia within the last several days, with each passing day the emotional pain she had been battling seemed to decrease in amount. Maia was nowhere near close to being okay or happy as she would've been had she had her brother, but the situation was becoming much easier for her to deal with. She was slowly letting go, as she knew she needed to do. Maia was beginning to feel as if she wasn't being presented with a choice when it came to her emotional feelings, and although she was still very much broken from her brother's loss, he was gone, and that was something she felt she needed to accept.

Maia would see Mark again, maybe not in this lifetime, but in a distant one. As of right now, she had her memories of him, as well as her memories of both of them, and she would hold onto them for as long as she could. Maia would never let go of Mark, but the agonizing pain of missing him was a different story. It was a slow and difficult process to let go of something that had been dictating every aspect of her life for the past forty-six sols, but she had to, not only for the sake of herself, but for the sake of her crew-mates, and for the sake of her job. She knew Mark wouldn't want his sad little sister running around and ruining everyone else's day when she was supposed to brighten them; she knew Mark wouldn't want her to waste her time crying over him, no matter how much she loved and missed him.

Beck then walked into the room, attracting Maia's attention almost immediately. She looked up at him and smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. Beck noticed this and frowned, walking over to grab the supplies he needed in order to take out Maia's stitches.

"What's wrong, Maia?" Beck asked her, worry lacing his tone.

Maia looked over at him as he turned back around. "Nothing. Why do you ask?"

Beck sighed and walked over to her, placing his tools down beside her. "Your smile—it isn't yours."

"Hmm, you seem to know me more than I know myself," Maia teased as she watched him grab the scissors. She was only slightly terrified, as she hated the idea of something so sharp being near her face. She could hardly stand it when he had to put her stitches back in for the second time, and she hated now that he had to take them out, though she loved it at the same time.

"I've known you for quite some time," Beck chuckled as he carefully raised the scissors to the side of her head. "I need you to be still for me, okay?"

Maia nodded, causing Beck to move the scissors away from her face.

"I told you to be still, Maia," he said with a raised brow.

Maia frowned and shrugged. "I didn't know how else to let you know that I heard you."

"A verbal answer would have sufficed," Beck laughed as he slowly inched the scissors back towards the side of her face. "Now be still, please."