Title: The Fix

Author: Olivia V.

Fandom: Andromeda

Pairing: Harper/Rommie

Status: Complete

Rating: NC-17

Archive: Ask first by e-mail at oliviav@att.net

Feedback: Would love it, please.

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. Just playing with them.

Summary: Okay, this is the third of a series of somewhat related stories starting with "For the Purposes of Security" It is not necessary to read that, or to read "On the making of the Heart", but if you want to go right on ahead.

Summary: In this one, Harper comforts Rommie after the events of All too Human.

Spoilers: TWG and ATH

He looks so different when he's sleeping.

Trance had left the Med Deck for the night. She needed her sleep and I promised to sit by the bed and watch over him. He woke up from his coma briefly and was in good enough health that he could leave now, but we didn't want him to stay up late trying to keep me fixed.

Harper has an odd habit of doing that: working on me until all hours of the night just to keep me running. With the Magog larvae in his belly, that could be disastrous.

You know, to be honest, after what happened on Machen Alpha, I was afraid I'd never see him again. And I was furious that what almost made it a reality was his pigheadedness and desire to keep the Maru running to the point where he'd overdose on his medicine just to keep working.

The son of a bitch should have asked for help. Instead he tried to do it all himself and almost killed everyone on board.

I reached over and brushed the hair back from his forehead, noticing its texture in my fingertips, and brushed his cheek with my palm. In his sleep, he moved enough to make full contact with my hand, almost as if he needed this touch to breathe normally.

Funny bit is, since I made a pass at him while we were modifying the console to make the Hegemon Heart, he's barely let me touch him at all.

I moved my hand away. Believe it or not, I'm still afraid I'm liable to hurt him even though I've completed my integration of the back up personality. Statistically the chances of me hurting him now are about as big as Rev becoming a vegetarian and surviving, but I am still, after all this time, worried.

Closing my eyes, I ran another check on his vitals. Respiration was still steady but his brain wave activity indicated he would wake up any minute. I stood and went to a nearby console and activated the first book I could randomly access from the library files.

I wound up with a copy of the Fairytales of The Brothers Grimm.

He covered his eyes for a second as he woke up. "Oh man." He looked around. "Where's Trance and Rev?"

"Sleeping. It's almost one in the morning." I sat back down by his side. "How are you feeling?"

"Groggy. Did we at least get the informant out?"

I frowned. I didn't want to give details about what happened to me on Machen Alpha right now. Dylan knew in my report to him, but even then I didn't tell him everything. "Kim. didn't make it, but we got the information we needed. They were using a Magog swarm ship as the basis for their weapons program. We have it on board for later study."

Harper studied my face, and then glanced at the damage to my body before he decided not to push it. Sometimes his knowing my expressions and my body language is a good thing. "I'm sorry. I know you did what you could."

I decided try to change the subject if I could. "You can go rest in your quarters if you want now."

Harper sat up. "I'd rather check the damage to your avatar body first."

I had a feeling he'd do this. Harper knows that, unlike the rest of the crew, I can't just go to a doctor if something is wrong with me. He may have made this body for me to experience what it is to be a woman, but for all intents and purposes my physical and emotional well being is still dependant on the nearest mechanic and programmer. In this respect Harper isn't just the ship's engineer or my friend. He's my psychologist and my doctor.

Stubborn little shit. "Harper, Trance and I both think you need to rest overnight. You only just came out of the coma this morning. You know, that was a stupid thing you did back there."

"I know, Rev told me what happened. I'm sorry. I feel lousy enough about it as is. I just didn't want to leave you behind."

Fine Harper, just pull out the sweet remark right after you annoy me a bit so I won't be so mad at you. "Harper, I'm the avatar for the ship. You can always make another one of me. Dylan sent me to Machen Alpha because I'm the expendable one here."

"Dylan's full of shit. And I can't just up and make another one of you."

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. "Harper, go to bed. Please."

"Not until I've looked at you. Tell you what; I've got some of my tools in my quarters. You make sure I go to them, and I'll look you over and make the repairs before I go to bed. Deal?"

I ran an analysis of the likelihood that he'd keep his word and got a 50 percent probability he'd sneak out and work on the Magog ship alone, which would be a bad idea right now. There was a 40 percent probability he'd go to the machine shop and tinker with one of his pet projects. If I factor in going to his quarter with him, there was a 30 percent probability he'd fall asleep before finishing the repairs, which wouldn't take long anyway. The probability he'd stay put if I stayed in his quarters was almost 100 percent.

I made my decision. "Deal. But I'm staying in your quarters with you until you fall asleep."

************************

As usual, Harper's quarters were an utter pigsty. I should have taken his coma as an opportunity to have one of droids neaten up the place. Should have, but didn't have the heart to.

Not that I have a heart anyway, but still.

I sat down on the bed because it was the one place in his room not cluttered with disk collections, parts, or clothes, and looked at Harper. "You may want to get ready for bed."

"Rommie, you know how I sleep." Harper gave me another one of his grins. I wanted to smack him.

"Not tonight you're not. I'd appreciate it if you'd wear underwear at least."

Harper continued to smile as he grabbed some clothes off the floor and headed into his bathroom. I sat and stared at the mirror, fine attuning the temperature
settings over the ship as I waited.

I saw him through the mirror when he came out. He was in a black T-shirt and blue boxers, nothing fancy. He grabbed his tools and sat on the bed beside me. I took my vest off, leaving me in just a bra from the waist up. For comfort, I kicked off my shoes.

Harper sucked in his breath. "Rommie, why didn't you tend to this earlier?"

Because I was worried about you, you idiot. "I was busy securing the Magog ship before I relieved Trance. Not to mention about 359 other calculations. Besides, Kim did some temporary repairs before he died."

Kim. He hated, until the last few moments of his life, what I represented to his people. I was only just beginning to change his mind about what an AI is. The memory of having to pin him to a couch and kiss him is still in my head as were his words of what the AI population did to his people.

I think he liked the sensation of me having to kiss him less than I did. It was like kissing a plastic doll. And coming from an android, that should tell you something.

Harper began to inspect the damage the shots did to my body, kneeling in front of me as he did so. He used a set of tweezers to start picking out small pieces of debris from the holes in my stomach and chest. I tried not to move or look at him. "Kim did a pretty good job, actually. This just needs a cleaning and a sealing of the skin and we're done. What did he do for a living?"

"He made warships." Please change the subject, Harper.

"Huh, no AI's in their technology?" Harper blew a piece of debris out of one of the wounds. I bit my lip.

"They are afraid of them. Even Kim was afraid to trust me." I saw Harper move back on the bed, then behind me as I spoke. I felt those tweezers poking around in the wound in my back, followed by the feel of his breath on my skin as he blew what couldn't be tweezed away.

Internally I shivered but managed to remain motionless. A tear ran down my cheek as I stared at myself in the mirror.

"But he realized you were one of the good guys, right?" A whisper with a slight tone of worry. I couldn't see his face in the mirror. I just felt his calloused fingers as he pinched the skin closed so he could seal it with a cauterizing tool. I felt the tool burn as it sealed my skin.

I covered my mouth in an attempt to hold back a sob. For the first time since I had to talk Harper out of his suicide attempt, I felt like crying. "It. it hardly matters that he did. Once Kim was dead I had to hold a city hostage by starting a fusion reactor overload to complete the mission. A lot. of people had to die in order for me to get the swarm ship. Harper, I should have listened to you when you told me to run."

Harper sat up and looked over my shoulder. He hesitated for a moment before slipping his arms around my waist. I turned and rested my forehead against his chin. I just let go, sobbing uncontrollably. He kissed my forehead.

After a few moments, he whispered, "Alright, already. I'll stop teasing you about catching me masturbating. Just please, stop crying."

I couldn't help it. I started to laugh and cry at the exact same time. It felt good. Harper's arms tightened around me. That felt good too. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling.

My eyes were still closed when I felt Harper tilt my face up and kissed me. I'm still not entirely sure why, but that felt way too good. New energy cell high kind of good. I opened my eyes and blinked for a second before my I ran my fingers through his hair.

Harper finally broke the kiss and looked at me, breathing deeply. I saw nothing in his eyes but need. He hesitated for a moment, then ran his hand down my torso as he started to kiss my neck.

He trailed kisses down to my chest. I reached behind my back and unhooked my bra, sliding it off my shoulders. Harper's lips made contact with my right nipple and I arched my back slightly. His hand unbuttoned and unzipped my slacks. I turned my head and watched us both in the mirror.

I wondered if I should stop him. I really did. But I was beginning to think that, somehow what was happening was something we both needed. So instead, I initiated privacy mode. And I didn't bother with calculating probabilities this time.

I tilted his face back up with both hands and kissed him, hard, before standing up and pulling down my slacks, followed by my underwear, to the floor. He just leaned back on his hands and watched quietly.

I don't think I've ever seen Harper so quiet and not sleeping. It was weird, a good kind of weird, but still a bit weird. I shivered as I sat back down and reached for his shirt, but he grabbed my hand.

Ok, now I was confused.

"Not yet," he said and smiled at me before returning that hard kiss. I felt one of his hands caressing my thigh just before I began to run my tongue around the skin near his dataport.

Harper moaned audibly and brushed his hand against my slit before slipping his fingers in, stroking me. I whimpered and almost fell over from the sensation.

So this is what it would have felt like if I had done what my hologram wanted. Only better, because it was someone else doing this to me. I began to rock against his fingers.

It's good to be reminded that Harper can be quite good with his hands if he wanted to.

Harper let out a sharp breath when I began to stroke his cock through his boxers. He slid off the bed in front of me.

I gave him another confused look, but he responded with a slow smile. "Rommie, I said not yet."

"Tease." You would think that someone who seemed to want anything female would be more eager to have me touch him than this.

The next thing I felt was his hands pushing my legs apart, followed by his lips and his tongue in my slit, concentrating on my clitoris. I gasped and bucked against him, but he held me down with one hand. Again, I watched us in the mirror.

One would think that a Commonwealth ship of the line would last more than 2 minutes, 23.8 seconds after that, but the sensations going through my neural network at this point were just too great. I shuddered and moaned when I finally came.

I was still shaking when Harper got back into bed and kissed me. I could taste me on his lips, a mixture of salt, a weak acid, and proteins.

Actually, it was nice. I smiled.

"Harper, if you don't take off that shirt and boxers soon so I can thank you, I'm going to make you put on an EVA suit and clean my hull tomorrow with a scrub brush."

"Has anyone told you how impatient you can be?" He was grinning.

"Other than you on a daily basis, I don't think so."

"Dress for bed, don't dress for bed." Harper stood and took off his shirt, revealing light scars on his back and belly from the Magog attack. Pulling off his boxers, he looked at me.

And saw that again, I was frowning.

Getting back on the bed, he touched the scar I made him leave in my torso from the impalement and said, "We both have been through quite a bit, and we both have scars. Now, you said something about a thank you?"

Much as he can aggravate me, I think Harper understands me better than anyone on board. I straddled his hips and pushed him backwards onto the bed. "Oh, I have every intention of thanking you, believe me."

I started thanking him by planting kisses down his chest, my fingers wrapping around his cock. He began to whimper in reply, but I gave it a squeeze and started stroking upwards with a slight twist.

"Jesus."

"No, it's Rommie. You must be thinking of another avatar." My kisses trailed further down to his belly. I paused at the scars but only briefly, before continuing downward. I heard part whimper, part moan coming from Harper.

"Oh, God. Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Oh, I just watched you and took notes. Being a quick study doesn't hurt." I planted a kiss on his cock before I swallowed it.

"Ok, that I can't.. Oh, God. Mmmmmmm." This time it was Harper bucking in response to what I was doing to him. This time I had to hold his hip down with my free hand.

To his credit, Harper lasted longer than I did. I smiled when he screamed my name just as he came. I kept working on him for a few moments before I let his cock fall from my lips, then crawled back up to lay by his side on the bed.

Poor Harper looked exhausted as he rested his head on my chest and murmured, "Wasn't I supposed to be sleeping?"

"I had a feeling you'd stay awake anyway." I played with his hair.

"Staying?"

"If you want. I won't be sleeping though."

Harper snored in response.

-------------------------------

Harper snored for about four and a half hours before my hologram appeared to me. She looked at me, cradling Harper, and tilted her head.

"Wow," she said. "I didn't think you and he would."

"Me neither," I whispered. "I'm glad we did, though."

"Beka is waiting outside, she wanted to talk to you."

I nodded, gently eased myself out from underneath Harper, pulled on the discarded black T-shirt, and walk out of Harper's quarters to face a very surprised Beka.

"Uh."

"Did you need something?"

"Uh."

I smiled at Beka and took the minimalist approach to explaining why I was there. "He wouldn't sleep unless I stayed in the room with him. Harper has this tendency to work himself to exhaustion when he's upset, and since he just came out of a coma, I though I'd do what I could to keep him in his room. So, I agreed to let him work on the damage to this body I received while on Machen Alpha in exchange for him staying put."

A long pause from Beka, followed by "Oh, I see. We were scheduled to have a meeting at 0700 with Dylan, but seeing that you are busy."

"I will see you at the start of the shift in three hours, if that is okay with the two of you."

Beka nodded and paused, giving me one of her motherly concern expressions. I often love and hate them alternatively depending on who they are directed to. This morning, I think my mind settled on merely touched. "Are you sure you want to be doing this with him, Rommie?"

Figures. The captains always know before the people involved do.

I faked a breath. "I think. this is what we both need right now. I wish I could explain it further, but I can't. Harper's my engineer, Beka, which has always made him more than just a friend to me."

"If you hurt him I'll kick your ass."

I smiled at Beka. "And if he winds up hurting me?"

Beka grinned. "Then I'll just kick his. If you need to talk to a friend."

"You'll be the first to know." I smiled and went back into Harper's quarters, sliding back under the sheets.

Harper rolled over and nuzzled my hair. "What did Beka want?"

"She was concerned for our well being." I rubbed his back.

"I heard what you told her." He kissed me, and I felt his hand run along stomach under the T-shirt.

"Did you want me to deny anything?"

Harper nibbled my ear, and I shivered. "No. I just wanted to keep it, you know, quiet for a little while. Bad enough everyone tip toes around me because of the boys. I don't want anyone to pass judgment on you over this."

I nodded in understanding and agreement. "Is Beka the type to talk?"

"Contrary to popular belief, no." Harper's hands inched the T-shirt up and he planted several kisses over my breasts. "What about Dylan?"

"Dylan once found Admiral Stark rimming a lower level engineer during a diplomatic function. He never told anyone about it, and as far as I know he doesn't know I saw her do it."

Harper stopped and looked up at me for a few seconds. "Ew. I can see why."

I laughed and sat up just long enough for me to remove the shirt. "I don't blame you."

Harper pushed me back on the bed and positioned himself between my legs. Between kisses, he said, "I'd like to try something else with you."

"Oh, what is this, experiment with the android day?" I said, nibbling on his neck.

I felt his hand between my legs, followed by the push of him sliding into me.

This was better than the feel of a new energy cell high, or even a newly installed slipstream core high. This was more like the feeling a warship gets the first time it goes through slipstream, and gives up all navigational control to a pilot. It's a mixture of
freedom, excitement and surrender of control.

You know, a warship can learn to like this.

--End--