Work Text:
Status: Completed 2/14/2009
Season: 4
Spoilers: Abridging the Devil's Divide
Archive Permission: Ask first.
Disclaimer: Andromeda and its characters are the property of Andromeda Productions Ltd., MBR Productions Inc, Tribune, and whoever else has a claim to 'em. No copyright infringement intended.
Word Count: 716
"He's coming to," Trance says as Dylan groans and begins to awaken, his slowly eyes fluttering open.
"Good," comes my snapped reply, arms crossed and sounding every bit as angry as I am. Without even waiting for him to wake up fully, I demand, "What the hell did you do to my ship?"
Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but that bucket of bolts means a lot to me! Not that Dylan doesn't, mind you. Dylan knows that, how much the Maru means to me, so I doubt he really took the remark personally.
Besides, that's what he gets for scaring the shit out of me. He was so damn close to death -again!- when we brought the Maru on board. Way too close. His pulse was so weak Andromeda could barely detect it. His breathing was shallow and wheezy, like he couldn't get enough air. Trance says that if his exposure to the Argon Gas and radiation had gone on much longer, or if we hadn't gotten to him when we did he most likely would have died. Oh, and let's not forget the hypoxia. The Maru had less than three minutes of air left by the time we retrieved it. To top it all off, he was dehydrated too. Apparently someone decided to not only poison him, but to withhold water from him as well. Or severely limit it at the least.
I don't react well to losing, or even almost losing, friends. He's been unconscious for nearly ten minutes, so it is a big relief that he's coming to now. We butt heads on a lot of things, but Dylan has become very special to me, a very close friend.
I know that many of the crew think I'm in love with him and vise-versa, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I do love him as a friend only. Our relationship is more than a simple friendship, but it never was or will be romantic. I won't use any of the centuries-old clichés to describe out relationship like, "he's like a brother/father/uncle to me". It's so much more than that too. I just can't put it into words. As much as we differ, we are also very much alike.
"It's good to see you too," he replies with a small smile.
I smile back at him, careful not to show just how relieved I am that he's awake and talking again.
"Patriarch, he's our smuggler."
My eyes go wide in disbelief as Dylan tries to rub the sleep from his, or perhaps he's trying to massage away the last vestiges of a headache. He must have had one hell of a whopper before the meds kicked in. I can't believe the Patriarch is alive. I thought we killed that guy. "Still alive, huh? Well, he's also moving weapons, enough for an army." I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. He's proven himself incredibly hard to kill. Kind of like the cockroaches on Earth that Harper is always telling me about.
That gets Dylan's attention. He stops rubbing his eyes. "That's it. An army. He's breeding an army to import from the future."
He's got to be kidding me. "The future?" I know I sound skeptical, but come on! The future? How is that even possible?
Dylan gives a little snorting chuckle then says, "It's never easy." At his last words, Dylan's eyes close and I look to Trance with concern. She said he was okay.
Cleary picking up on my distress, she assures me, "He is fine. His body has been through a traumatic experience and simply needs some time to rest. It will be an hour at least before we arrive at the planet. We should let him sleep." That said, she leaves the med-deck, likely heading for the bridge to update Rommie. She's scary sometimes. If I didn't know better, I'd swear she was reading my mind.
I nod but make no move to follow her. As I watch Dylan sleep, I know Trance's right. Despite Andromeda's fantastic medical capabilities, the only "cure" for fatigue is sleep. Even though I know it, I'll still be here when he wakes up. That's what friends do; they watch each other's back, even when it doesn't necessarily need watching.
THE END