Old Flame Still Burning (Silk, Nate, etc.)

[William Blake]

It didn't seem to be working, Will had doubts that anything would right now, she was too angry. And just to prove how angry she was, she came forwards and socked him one in the face. He didn't try to stop her, he wasn't going to defend himself against her like that, even if he hadn't meant for this to happen. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to get caught, it was that he hadn't wanted it to happen in the first place. He was happy with Natalie, or, at least, he had been till Silk had planted her lips against his in front of her.

His head hung to the side after the punch, her comment stinging in his ears as his cheek throbbed and she banged out of the room. For once, he hadn't actually actively cheated, and this time he was paying the highest price for it.

For the briefest of moments he considered following her, but it would only do more damage. Instead, he lifted his head up, his eyes stinging. He closed them for a moment, taking a breath, then opened them again, his eyes falling on the bottle of whiskey.

You stupid sod.

There was a loud crash as the bottle soared across the room and shattered on the opposite wall. Several people scurried away from the door as quickly as they could, not wanting to feel Will's pain and anger.

[Natalie Blake]

Knowing that within a matter of minutes, once the adrenaline had faded, she was going to break down, Natalie tried to think of where she could go. If Katy had been on board, she would have gone to her, but they'd left her on Delta Prime for a little down time.

She considered Anna or Alliana--they were both wonderful people, and she considered them her friends. But they were both at work, in crowded rooms where others beyond them would see her. But then who could she go to? She didn't want to be alone, not when there was a chance that Will might find her.

An idea came to her then, and she picked up her pace, racing as fast as she could toward the flight deck.

It was a typical day so far, and Sean, as usual, had very little to do. He'd found Lizzy leaving the mess hall, and he had decided to strike up a casual conversation with her. They'd only been talking a few minutes when a blonde woman came barreling down the hall toward them.

He'd grabbed Lizzy's arm just in time to pull her out of the way before the other woman's thoughts, being projected loudly due to her misery, penetrated his barrier. Mostly, her thoughts were in a disarray of pain, but there was one image that shone through clear and strong.

Silk.

His grip on Lizzy's arm tightened substantionally.

Natalie burst into the flight deck and was immensely relieved to see that the one person she wanted to see was there--and he were alone. She stood there for a moment before, with a wrenching sob, she fell to her knees, looking up into Luke's startled blue eyes before her own became blurry with tears.

"How... could h-he?" she asked brokenly, wrapping her arms around herself and finally falling apart like she so desperately needed to. Tears cascaded down her cheeks like waterfalls and she could barely breathe anymore, hugging herself tighter in a futile attempt to lessen her shaking.

[s]

Silken Floss had never felt so embarrassed. It took less than a second into the kiss for her to feel Wills withdraw from her. What was the matter with her? Was she loosing her touch? But then the girl had come crashing into the office and instantly she saw what had happened.

So Will had a relationship, and Silk had tried to jump right into the middle of it without knowing it. That was the kind of women others always tried to make her out to be, a home-wrecker, a slut. It wasn’t what she wanted, and then without even meaning to she’d done it anyway.

Not letting there be any possibility for confrontation, Silk pushed past the blond girl, muttering a quick excuse before she rushed out the door and out of the engine room. With a flustered sigh she went in the opposite direction, pulling the tie from her hair and letting it down. She ran her fingers through it several times.

The ship was starting to feel cramped. She needed air. But there was nowhere. Fresh Air didn’t exist in space, only the canned kind. She walked into the gym before walking out again and heading for her dorm-room.

After a few minutes she went to the receiver to send a few messages via the VMS…

[Luke Martin]

Luke had been sitting idly in the flight deck. Again, it was empty apart from him, most of the crew working elsewhere and the Captain busy in his office. He'd been engrossed in his book, so much so that his nose was practically inside his book, his glasses about to slip off the end of it, when he heard someone enter and quickly looked up. The look on Natalie's face almost drop his book, and his glasses appropriately dropped off his face into his lap (which was sort of a blessing, he hated people seeing him in them). Before he could ask what the matter was, she managed to choke out something, "How... could h-he?" and his mind immediately jumped to Will. What had he done?

Rising from his chair, he walked over to Natalie and crouched down in front of her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "How could he what?" He paused for a moment, not sure if she was going to be able to manage a reply in this state. If Will had done something to Natalie, then he would go down there and deal with him himself.

Seeing Sean was always a nice surprise - he might have been able to hear her coming, but to her it was a surprise. Chatting away like usual, she didn't see Natalie coming, and so was startled when Sean grabbed her and hoisted her out of the way as she stampeded down the corridor. "Someone's in a hurry," she muttered, shaking her head a little, before looking at Sean. All the colour had drained from his face and he was still holding her arm but more like in a vice grip now.

"Sean," she said, putting her hand over the hand on her arm, trying to get his attention, "what's wrong?" What had happened? Had he read something on Natalie as she'd run past? If so, what? She supposed the main reason Natalie would be upset would be Will, that wasn't hard to imagine, he had a propensity for doing stupid things, but why was Sean so shaken up? "Sean, talk to me."

[Natalie Blake]

Sucking in a deep, shaky breath, Natalie managed to quieten herself a little. She was being childish about this--first running away, then breaking down as she was--but she couldn't help it. It hurt. She loved Will, she trusted him; or she had. And she'd thought he felt the same way. She wasn't sure what was going on anymore.

But Luke's concern was real, and now that she'd brought him into this, she couldn't simply tell him it was nothing and leave. Looking up from the floor, she met his eyes as steadily as she could and sought after her wayward voice. "I... I walked in on him kissing another woman," she admitted. The words were like shards of glass in her throat, ripping their way out and harming her with their truth.

At Lizzy's voice, Sean blinked, only then realizing the way he was squeezing her arm. He let go hastily, muttering an apology, but rather than answering her question he leaned against the wall and ran his hands over his face. He'd turned Silken down when they saw one another, yes, it was true.

And yet, he hadn't thought she'd run off to snog the first man she could find who'd take her. Was it not him she'd been after, but simply getting him into bed? The idea smarted, and he frowned to himself. He'd turned her down. If she wanted to go off and kiss every member of the crew, who was he to stop her?

With a sigh, he turned back to Lizzy, his expression apologetic, and hastily drew up something that wouldn't sound like a lie. "I suppose you ought to know, as William's your superior and all. The woman who just ran by--Natalie, is it?--well, she just found him kissing S--someone."

[Luke Martin]

Luke was really concerned, he’d never seen Natalie this shaken up about something before. Sure, she’d been down after her Dad had passed, but she looked wrecked... heartbroken even. But she would only be heartbroken if Will had done something wrong and he seriously hoped...

His fist tightened involuntarily, ”he did what?” he couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. That bastard. How could he? How could he do that to Natalie of all people? The woman had a heart of gold, she was witty and beautiful. The complete and utter fool. His anger raged inside, but the tears in Natalie’s eyes told him that she hadn’t run to him to have him go down there and punch Will’s lights out. She needed comfort.

Swallowing hard, he gritted his teeth. He couldn’t say anything which wasn’t him cursing. So, instead, he sighed, and gently helped Natalie to her feet, hesitating before pulling her into a hug. ”I’m sorry,” he said, ”for the male half of the human race in general. We’re not the brightest buggers.”

Lizzy wasn’t quite sure what to say or do. If Sean didn’t explain exactly what was wrong then she couldn’t come out with an appropriate response; sympathy, something to make him laugh, anything to break the awkward silence after he’d torn his grip from her arm.

When he spoke, she couldn’t help but look taken back. Will had been kissing someone that wasn’t Natalie, what the hell??? That idiot. He just couldn’t keep it in his pants, could he? She knew full well that he had cheated on her back in the day, but it looked like things were different with Natalie, it had looked like he loved her. Obviously not.

Something else crossed her mind. ”Why would I need to know that because he’s my superior?” she asked, looking at him curiously. ”And why would you get so flustered over something like that? Do you know the person he was kissing?” He’d seen what had happened from Natalie’s mind, right? So he had to know. She wasn’t stupid.

[Natalie Blake]

For a moment Natalie thought she might have to stop Luke from going down and beating Will, what with the way his hands curled into fists, but seeming to keep her in mind, he stayed where he was. She hadn't expected him to get so upset in her defense, and she was quite touched, though she couldn't find her voice again to say so out loud.

There was no fight left in her to argue when Luke pulled her to her feet, and the hug that followed was welcome enough that she didn't fight it, either. She hadn't been hugged like this for some time now--just a comforting, friendly hug--and she'd forgotten how nice it was. She returned the embrace then, giving a choked laugh at his words.

"No, no, I'm pretty sure their southern brains work quite well. They just need to come and visit the north once in a while. No offense meant," she added, realizing that generalizing that to all men included him as well.

Sean suppressed a frown at Lizzy's curious glance. Of course she'd want to know why he'd told her. "Well, you know how people are when they're upset--they're like a wounded animal. They're in pain and afraid, and they lash out without thinking. So if will seems unusually spiteful, you'll know why."

Her next question caught him off guard and he swallowed uncomfortably. What could he say that didn't sound entirely moronic? Coming right out and telling her, "Oh, well, you see, he was kissing the woman I've been in love with for almost three years now," probably wouldn't be the smoothest thing in the world. While he heard others' thoughts almost every day, he rather liked to keep his own private.

"Um... Natalie was projecting her thoughts quite loudly. Emotional overload and such. I guess it just caught me unawares. Normally I wouldn't have reacted like that." But that didn't answer her last question, and so, a little reluctantly, he added, "And yes, I know the woman Will was kissing. Her name is Silken Floss Hernandez."

[Luke Martin]

Luke chuckled at what she said, "none taken," he said, "I'm all too aware of the effects of a downstairs brain. It can be such a curse sometimes," he said it jokingly, trying to cheer her up a little. After another moment, he pulled back, keeping his hands on her arms, rubbing them comfortingly. "Feel free to abuse the name of men all you want in front of me. I have my protective shield up, all the insults will just bounce right off."

He listened to his sisters whine about boys a lot, especially Jen. Georgie wasn't really old enough to be worrying about them yet apart from them pulling her hair and playing other boyish pranks. Jen on the other hand was a fully fledged teenager and had boys on the brain. He'd already lost count of the many failed flirtings and two week relationships that she'd phoned him up crying over. He would offer an ear if they needed it, then proceed right on with cheering them up. He was well practised by now.

The thing was with Will and Natalie... they had looked so good together, her mellowing him out. They'd had something great, why would Will ruin that? No idiot, no matter how stupid, would give up something like that willingly.

Lizzy listened to the words coming out of his mouth, but they didn't seem to compute with her brain. It sounded like an excuse. She'd had a teenage brother, she knew when a guy was fibbing, or making something up. There was something that Sean wasn't saying. If it had been Dustin, she would have tickled him or confiscated his computer until she told him. But with Sean, she didn't feel like she could pry. If he didn't want to tell her then... there wasn't really anything she could do about it.

The woman's name he said sounded familiar... it was tech specialist that she often saw working in engineering. She nodded slowly and thoughtfully, everything becoming clear. The hesitation, the way he'd reacted. She kept nodding, trying to conjure up something to say, but words had deserted her. She didn't know why, because Sean was just a friend, right? She should just feel sorry for him and offer comfort or something. Well, not comfort... never mind.

"Oh." No, that wasn't what I meant to say. "I, uh, okay." Oh for the love of God. "Sorry," she said, although it wasn't quite clear why she was apologising. "I've, uh, I've known Will for a while now and leaving him to fester in his own sorrow is never a good idea," she said, "I'm going to go check if he's still in one piece. But, um, if you want to talk, then you know where to find me." That was the best she could do right now as she was very aware of all the thoughts buzzing around her head, and she didn't want him getting the wrong idea from them, or them making him any more flustered, he didn't need that right now.