Aftermath

[Admiral Hart]

Josetta Hart woke in the med bay, her stomach and back very sore but, she was, unexpectedly, alive. And dressed in a hospital gown. With her chest unbound.

Oh no. Was the first thought in her head. Then she heard, and then saw, Andi.

Andromeda locked eye with her for a moment before turning away. "Good morning, Captain. Your wounds have been bound, but you will need to keep to light work only for the next few weeks. Get plenty of rest and have Mr. Halcyon do as much as possible."

Jo's first action was to get her eyepatch and put it over to the old, scarred, charred hole where her right eye used to be. Then she said, "Andi...Andi, I'm so, so sorry. I...I wanted to tell you. I really did."

"...but you didn't." The doctor said softly, perhaps more to herself than the Captain, her stare sad and accusatory.

"I was going to tell you. I was." Jo chuckled bitterly. "I didn't want to screw it up."

Her emotions seemed to shut off. "Well, now I know, so if you will excuse me, Captain, I have many other injuries to take care of."

Jo almost tore her stitches when she vaulted off the bed and rushed to Andi, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Please, Andi. Please, don't leave."

Andromeda's voice got shaky and she flinched away, her eyes watering. "Please, Jon...Josetta, if you ever cared about me, please, don't do this."

"I need you." Hart said earnestly.

She scoffed bitterly. "You don't need me, Captain. I...Morgan said that you were married to him. Is that true?"

Guilt and pain shot across Jo's face. "...yes. For five years now. And I love him, I do. More than I ever thought I would love again. But I don't need him like I need you."

"Goodbye, Captain." Andromeda replied, trying her best to be stoic. "There are others I need to care for. I suggest you get some rest and stay off your feet as much as possible."

She left quickly, and Jo stared, a bit broken, before she dusted herself off and put her jacket and breeches on before heading back to her room, ignoring the looks she got from the crew as they saw the real her walk the halls.

Very soon, she had an announcement to make

[Cassiopeia Reyes-Hart]

Cassiopeia winced as she wrenched her wounded shoulder a little on the way back to her room. She was bone tired, but there was still so much to be done. The ship was still a bit of a wreck, though everybody had been pitching in to the best of their ability to get things put back to rights. She sighed heavily. Word had spread like wild fire about the Captain's identity. The general feeling of the crew was confusion and wariness, but most had opted to continue on as normal under Morgan's command until the Captain was well enough to address them and sort everything out.

Their loyalties were strong enough to see them through for now.

Cassi entered the room she and her sister shared, and hesitated as the sound of bitter weeping hit her ears, able to be heard even through the divider that separated her sleeping space from Andromeda's. The sixteen year old crept the rest of the way inside, but faltered again in the middle of the room, shifting her weight in uncertainty.

A moment later her silver eyes swirled, and she gasped as she saw her sister curled into a tight ball on her bed, crying bitterly as if her heart were breaking. Cassi's own eyes teared up immediately, hating to see Andromeda in so much anguish. She had suspected for a while now that Andi had developed feelings for the Captain, or rather, the man that she had thought Josetta was. In and amongst her own troubles, Cassiopeia had completely forgotten about it until she'd seen her sister's white-faced stare of horror when Morgan had carried her wounded mother into the med-bay.

Cassi's eyes began to swirl faster of their own accord, and the past few days began zipping past her vision in rewind, following Andromeda's movements through the ship. Until the scene stilled again, with the image of her sister curled into "Jonah's" arms, kissing passionately.

Cassi sobbed a little, wrapping her arms around herself, tears slipping loose out of her own eyes. Confusion was suddenly rampant in her own mind. She loved her sister, and the last thing she wanted was to see Andromeda hurt. She wanted to be angry and incensed on Andromeda's behalf, for having been lied to and betrayed. But she loved her adopted mother too, so much it hurt, the bond between them having become so much stronger over the past few months, far beyond the affection she had originally held for the dashing Pirate Captain.

And now, somehow, her mother was apparently attracted to her sister. While she was still married to Morgan. And her sister was devastated. And her mother was devastated. And Morgan was devastated.

Where did that leave her?

Cassiopeia lifted her chin, then, reaching up to wipe her eyes before turning on her heel and leaving her room again--of to go put in another few hours devoted to the clean up despite the twelve and a half grueling ones she had already spent doing so. She would leave Andi to her privacy, to grieve and to deal with her own emotions as she would. Cassi couldn't choose between her sister and her mother, her loyalties were too strong to either of them. So instead, she would endeavor to stay as far away from that tangle as possible.

Her eyesight flickered a moment to show Morgan standing on the bridge, his expression drawn and distant, before Cassi viciously shut her power off again with a determined scowl.

Nothing lay down that road but heart-ache, and she refused to walk that path any more.

[T.K.]

T.K. had made a brief stop in Engineering to use the computers to check how bad the damage to the ship was. While bad, the ship could still move, so at least they weren't a sitting duck. He left Ryan and Amillia on duty in Engineering, and split up the other shifts, sending them off to begin repairs.

Afterwards, he made his own rounds of the ship, 'drafting' a few crew members on the way, and sending them off to help the repair crews. Others he sent off to start gathering up the scrap laying around the ship, and hauling it off to the cargo area where he'd sort through it later.

A few had started to complain, but a glance at the blood streaked wrench in his hands convinced them otherwise.

[Beau Altair]

Beau had stripped down to a sleeveless undershirt and his cargo jeans for the clean-up, a wealth of sweat and grime now coating his face, hands, bare arms and chest. Even though he wasn't an official member of the crew, the work gave him something to do with his time other than stare at the walls of his room or play poker with Coop--a rather nice guy, for a pirate. He was learning a great deal of the Plunder's Heart crew were good people despite what he had been raised to believe of their ilk. Beau found himself wishing more and more that once things had settled down and the Captain had time to consider it, that he--she--would accept his request to become a permanent addition to this motley extended family.

And his reasons weren't all because of the slender blonde working near-by, he told himself stubbornly. He lifted up, sighing, sneaking a furtive glance at Cassiopeia as she bent at the waist, rummaging in a pile of scrap with her good arm. His green eyes drifted across the generous curve of her rear outlined beneath the powder blue skirt she wore before they snapped away guiltily, blushing.

At least not entirely.

Cassi was a heart-wrenchingly pretty, adorable mass of contradictions that was quickly garnering his full, undivided attention. She was now the adopted daughter of the most infamous pirate in the solar system, a wanted Magi fugitive, and had shown that she could be downright deadly with a sword in her hands. Yet Cassiopeia was also sugar sweet, and genuinely golden-hearted all the way to her bones; constantly going out of her way to make sure everyone else around her was happy and content. Even to her own detriment, a lot of the times.

Take now, for example. Beau eyed her again, a faint note of worry on his face. She had been working all day and half of the night, now, putting on a stubbornly bright smile and waving anyone away who happened to notice the dirt smudges and clammy sweat clinging to her coppery cream skin. Her arm had to be killing her, even put up in a sling as it was, yet she kept right at it, shooing others away to go rest while she herself continued to labor tirelessly.

Yet, Cassi had to give out eventually.

The thought had just crossed his mind when he saw her straighten, her silvery eyes blinking, and then all of a sudden she started to totter on her feet. Beau dropped the scrap he was holding and lunged, just managing to catch the slender girl before she could hit the floor in a heap. Other crewmen all dropped what they were doing, calling out her name in worry and gathering close until Cooper pushed some of them back and barked that she needed room to breathe.

Beau shifted his hold, kneeling on the floor now with Cassi's upper half supported in his arms and across one of his knees.

"Is she okay?" someone behind him questioned worriedly.

"She's fine," he called back, his fingers pressing against her neck and feeling a strong pulse. God her skin's soft . . . . "S-she's just fainted, I think."

A second later she groaned a little, and then her silver eyes fluttered open. The two teens stared at each other for a full heartbeat, both with identical expressions of faint surprise, before Cassi blanched and winced.

Her cheeks started turning a bright, undeniable pink.

"Oh geez, I totally passed out didn't I."

"Yeah," Beau agreed with a faint smile at her embarrassment. "You've been working too hard. It was bound to catch up with you eventually."

Several grumbles of agreement went up around them from the other pirates surrounding the two.

"Someone should take her back to her room," Cooper pronounced. He gave Beau a suddenly calculating stare. "Why don't we let the kid handle it, while the rest of us get this mess straightened out."

None argued with the senior officer, and Beau decided that he'd be buying the pirate a whole case of rum the next time they hit a port. The auburn-haired teen's hold tightened on Cassi when she tensed, making to get up.

"Ah, I don't think you should push it, Cassi," he admonished before curling his other arm under her knees and then standing in one fluid motion. The girl in his arms squeaked in surprise, her own curling around his neck on instinct. Beau just smirked down into her wide eyes. "I gotcha."

And then he started down the hall toward her room, his pretty little burden in tow.

[Dane]

Dane entered his room, setting Elsa's mobile AI on the nightstand carefully. He'd worked triple shifts just to ignore the pain welling up in his chest, eventually Morgan ordered him to get some sleep, he complied after much protest. Robotically the weapons expert headed for the shower, removing the remains of his tattered shirt and discarding it in the trash.

After removing the rest of his clothing he stepped under the hot spray, letting the heat sooth his nerves, his eyes drifted shut, sighing he removed his hair tie and let it drop to the floor of the shower, uncaring where it landed at this point. The hot water worked its magic as it covered him from head to toe, mostly to sooth his nerves, removing the grim from his hair, now left loose and very damp.

He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remove the ache in his neck. Suddenly a flash of memory hit him, he watched again as Elsa exploded, in deadly slow mo over and over again. His eyes opened, slightly welling up with emotion he refused to acknowledge, Dane had know pain thought his life, hell his body was living proof of it, but this. This stung deeper than anything else, only one thing came close. He shook it off, not wanting to add insult to injury.

A good thirty minutes later, he was toweling off gaze far off and remembering better times and trying to not let himself cry like a baby. Last thing he needed was to turn into a emotional mess, not when people where still counting on him. Dane sat in his chair a few minutes later, now wearing a pair of dull Grey sweatpants, he was leaning forward, gaze far away.

He stayed that way for a long time, he didn't know what time he feel asleep. And honestly. He didn't care.

[Jane Doherty]

Jane swore again from her position underneath a console as the door to the bridge opened and T.K. stepped in. "Don't mess it up anymore than it already is."

Jane moved and stood up, "well if you had fixed this when I told you about it a week ago, this wouldn't be a problem."

T.K. stepped closer, "If you didn't break it every week then it wouldn't be a problem you reizun pai no baka!"

Jane stepped up and glared at him, "Anata baka chibi ike ike!"

[T.K.]

T.K. ground his teeth in frustration as he stomped his way back to Engineering.

The woman was insufferable. Twenty minutes on the bridge, and all he had wanted to do was strangle her. He didn't know what it was about her that pissed him off so much, but it was starting to get on his nerves. Maybe playing with his new toy later would make him feel better.

As soon as he stepped through the door, he walked over to Amillia.

“You. Bridge. Now.”

Startled, she set her tools down, and turned to give him a questioning look.

“Boss, I thought you were going to do the bridge?”

T.K. glared at her, the look making her blanch slightly.

“Right. I'll ah. Just go see what I can do. Call me if you need me Boss.”

She hurriedly grabbed her tool kit, and ran out of the room.

“Hey T.K., what happened on the bridge?”

A ten pound, burnt out signal relay to the temple was the only answer Ryan got, before he lost consciousness.