Welcome Back

Posted on Mon Feb 22nd, 2021 @ 11:57pm by Alden Loxley & Alison Bliss

Mission: Six Days to Santo
Location: Alden's quarters
Timeline: Day 24 - Still Too Early in the Morning

Alison went back to her cabin to put on some clothes. Underwear, followed by low-rise denim shorts, ankle high leather boots and a red tank top. She spent longer time in front of the mirror but with new guests around, she wanted to look extra presentable. She added the belt with her faithful SIG pistol in the holster and climbed back, out of the cabin.

First, she headed toward Alden’s cabin. She assumed he would be there. After time in the brig he likely was going to at least wash and change. Without knocking, she slid down the ladder into his quarters.
“Alden?”

He'd stood in the shower for as long as he dared and far longer than he should have, then, still wrapped in the mist from said lengthy wash, had messaged Chloe with a request to restock their water supplies for the trip.

Blood, sweat and tears duly removed from his skin, Alden had then laid himself down on his bunk, air-drying atop a towel and almost immediately, and completely involuntarily, had drifted off into a deeply and much needed sleep. Ali's descent and use of his name didn't do much more than make him murmur something incoherent.

"Should I leave?" Alison looked around the cabin. Naked Alden, not counting the loosened towel, wasn't anything new to her. She stepped closer to the bed and visually assessed her captain. He had some visible signs of extra fights but it didn't look like it bothered him. So Alison decided to keep to herself the concern for now. Especially that he seemed tired and in need of rest. "I just wanted to make sure you are ok." She added.

Alden opened one eye and regarded his partner for a long silent minute, then slowly sat up and reached for the pair of trousers he'd laid out on the bed. As he pulled them on, he turned away from Ali to hide a brief smile. For all their to and fro of harsh words, it was still good to know she cared.

"Nah," Alden decided, angling back to face Alison. "Stay. And thanks. I thought you'd be angrier with me..."

"Why? You are sticking to your guns. As much as I disagree with your decisions, I can respect you taking the responsibility for them." Alison said raising her eyebrow briefly. She moved closer standing next to him. "You should see Karen and patch up some of those cuts." She added pointing at his cut above his left eye. "So what is the story behind your release? I thought I finally got hands on the Echo." She joked.

He considered her first comment thoroughly, face screwed up as if this took great effort, then lifted his hand to touch his brow. It hurt, but Alden was also tired. "Yeah," he agreed, softly, his smile a little muted. "I'll go see Karen. Deputy really didn't like me," he half-explained, offering up a shrug to Ali's next question.

"I'm not really sure," Alden admitted. "Sheriff just said Howson dropped the charges." He chuckled then. "You want Echo?" He asked, then, with a teasing tone, continued. "Always just kinda figured you'd kill me in my sleep some day if you wanted to take her for yourself."

"Yeah... I guess not today." Alison said and leaned against the wall. "So... what's with the shepherd? I never thought of you as spiritual. How do you know him?" She asked.

"Gee thanks," noted Alden, though if murder was on his partner's mind she'd had plenty of time to enact it over the last couple of years. He remained eternally grateful that she hadn't, naturally, but that initial meeting had left him with the occasional concern from time to time. Now? It was just banter.

"Huh?" he asked. "Know him?" Alden shrugged. "I don't know him, he's a client. He put in a specific request for a charter out to Ghost and I grabbed it before anyone else did." He looked very happy about that as he added. "I don't think it's personal, I think he just really wanted a Firefly."

"So, when do we leave the planet?" Alison asked. It seemed everything was all right with Alden, which eased her mind and she had to accept she had been worried more than she was willing to admit. "And if those problems will follow us?"

Alden yawned. His lack of sleep, the whole barfight-to-jail-to-freedom excursion and the additional general bruising he carried took their toll, but it was nothing he hadn't endured before. He'd had way worse, and so had Ali. He sighed, reached out his arms and canted his head to the side. "We can leave later today if all the systems check out and you and I say so," he said, then pushed his luck. "Any chance of a hug first?"

The move disarmed Alison. She sighed with the face of a mother dealing with an urchin. She made two steps closing the distance and gave Alden a hug, simple, friendly and supporting. She was could see that he was on the verge after recent events and she simply wished to ensure him that she was here for him. "It's all right, it's all right."

For a moment, just a moment, Alden ignored that expression on his work-partner's face and just leant into the basic hug. Skin pressed against that red tank top of Ali's and long arms reached about her slender frame to grip tightly. He leant his face against her shoulder and simply savoured a moment of safety in good company.

Then he stepped back and looked awkward as hell.

"Thanks," Alden said, too quickly, and he turned to grab a shirt that had been thrown over a chair some time ago. "I didn't think they were gonna let me go," he admitted. "I thought... I thought they had me there. I wasn't thinking about me, or us, or the mission," he continued, talking to the floor for a moment. "But you know that, right?" A wry half-smile as he turned back to face her told Ali that Alden knew he'd been purely in protect-mode there, and it had jeopardised everything. He sighed, shoulders rising slowly and falling fast before he spoke again.

"You still just my pilot?" He asked, outright and without shame.

Alison's expression softened. When he stepped back, Alison sidestepped resting against the wall and giving Alden extra space. The hug was a bit awkward but their whole relationship was very much describable by this word quite well. She was long past judging anything that happened between them. She was glad it was all so open that they could do it without worrying what the other side might think. She listened to Alden and nodded slightly when he admitted to his thoughts in the brig.

"And a friend." She said quietly. "Listen, Alden, you are lost. I don't know what you are trying to do, but even more, I don't know how to help you. Talk to me... what is going on with you over those past few weeks?"

"A friend is great," Alden mumbled quietly to his chest. "Definitely need those." Especially right now, he mused internally. What is going on with you... She was right - Ali - he was a little lost, and yet, also, he really wasn't. It was complicated. Alden shrugged, and finally looked back up, his gaze meeting Alison's as he spoke.

"I dunno," he admitted. "I guess... this whole rollercoaster ride with Drake and his lies. Serenity Valley..." He whispered those two words and let them fade out for a long minute. "Being shot, buried alive," his voice skipped over the next word. "Noah..." Alden closed his eyes and took a backwards step to sit back down on the edge of his bunk. He kept his eyes shut as he offloaded still more. "Finding little Daiyu so broken and mixed up. The complicated mystery that is Tristan... losing Jacob... and now... Kindra?"

"How can I help?" Alison simply asked. All what he said was something she already figured out. Question was what Alden wanted to do about it. Was he even in position to do anything about it now, or maybe he needed more time? She moved toward the bulkhead and leaned against it. Folding her arms, she looked at him concerned.

Alden shrugged and cast a look at his favourite pilot and comrade in arms that suggested that he was very much still wrestling with any half decent answer to her question. "I don't know," he answered, honestly. He wasn't really used to thinking about how to help himself, most of his energy went on making sure everyone else was alright.

"All right." Alison said slowly. It was something she expected to hear. She sighed. "What are you going to do with Drake?" She asked looking right into Alden's eyes.

There was a heavy sigh, because this was another problem that Alden had been ignoring for the last few days. Drake... was up to something. "Not a lot I can do until we get back from Ghost," Alden said, evasively. "I need to go see him. Talk to him in person. Find out just exactly what the fuck he's neck-deep in. But," he shrugged hopelessly. "I know I'm not gonna like it."

A long pause followed and he kept that locked gaze with Alison. Whatever happened, however badly he failed or succeeded, she always told him straight.

"What do you think about it?"

"I think that with all the current changes that we have on board, we should just go." Alison said slowly. "Put as many light years as we can between us and Drake. For now. Until we..." She sighed and pointed her finger at Alden. "No... until you find the balance. Cool down. And you'll know where you stand." She gave Alden a long look. "You need to prepare for that talk."

There was nothing Alison could really do here. At least that how she was feeling. Alden rarely listened to her these days, deciding on his own. At some point she stopped trying to discuss or convince. She started to offer options and leave decisions to him. Was she expecting him to listen to her here and now. Not really.

"Agreed," said Alden, gratefully. He was in no mood for a verbal fight, and there was definite relief to hear Alison agree with his own judgment on his one. Drake could wait, Drake could - currently - go to hell. Whatever was going on with him, distance and time would at least help the older brother come to terms with some of those unruly emotions. Right now, all Alden wanted to do was punch the kid out cold and that wouldn't solve anything, just provide a temporary release.

"We head to Ghost, get the Shepherd's business - whatever that is - done. And I'll think it through. The Drake Situation. Promise." Alden lightly punched the wall, then rubbed his knuckles. "I swear though, if he's in deep with Niska again... if they're using me... I'll..." He didn't say 'kill him' because that right there was half the problem. He couldn't even entertain killing his little brother.

"No." Alison said softly and soothingly though her eyes flashed coldly. "No, Alden. You won't." She shook her head pausing before she finished icily. "I'll kill him."

Alden had been staring at his own boots, head lowered, mind swimming in emotional soup. But Ali's words clarified everything real fast into one sharp and pointy conclusion. She really would kill his little brother, and Alden didn't want that to happen. Every ounce of pain and sorrow, all those nuances of hurt and regret and hopelessness that filled every fibre of his being, they coloured Alden's expression with darkness and yelled silently from those dark blue eyes.

"No," he said, in a tone that sounded uncertain. His brow creased with conflict. "But... maybe we can hurt him in a different way. He's always cared more about money than anything else."

Alison shrugged.
"Do you want me to seduce him, marry him and then steal his money?" Her lips twitched amused. But her then she shook. "After everything you want him to live?"

That at least mustered up a smile. "Might be kinder to kill him," he joked, if a little half-heartedly.

There was something else on Alden's mind too, something he was keen to get Alison's opinion on. "What about Kindra?" He asked, leaving that question as open-ended as he possibly could.

"She came in being in trouble and in need of a ride." Alison replied. "We owe her at least that much though she insisted on paying. The rest, I thought we can deal with later." Alison paused briefly. "It would be nice to have a companion around again." She joked. "What do you think?"

"I think we could use the money," said Alden. "But you're right, we do owe Kindra one." He had mixed emotions on this score, based largely on a prior abandonment and the slightly more recent (and fuzzy in the extreme) overnight journey on a cruise liner. "I think it's gonna be interesting," he admitted honestly. "All being together again on this lil Firefly of ours..." He let that thought trail as emotions snagged upside his head.

Alison nodded slowly.
"You should rest." She said and moved toward the ladder. "Talk to you later?"

"Course," agreed Alden, simply and he let himself fall straight backwards onto his bunk. Eyes closing almost instantly, the Echo's captain's soft snoring gently drifted up the ladder after Alison.

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