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The initial frustration of being left behind on the ship as Ryder took Drack and Peebee out on Elaaden fades as Cora’s head begins to ache. She’s been staring at the monitor in the bio lab for far too long, powering through reports and experiment notes to catch up on the work that’s been clogging up her to-do list for weeks.
When the pain sharpens and moves from a general ache to a pulsing behind her left eye, she decides it’s time to take a break. The ship is somehow quiet and loud at once -- everyone still on board is working on their own projects in their own spaces, leaving the sounds of the ship itself to fill the void of voices -- and she wanders through the corridor digging the heel of her hand into her eye to relieve the pressure.
The crew quarters is empty when she gets there, and she heaves a sigh of relief as she prepares for a nap. She takes her shoes off and puts them in their proper place in her locker, removes her shirt and hangs it up so that she can sleep in just her tank top and pants. She stretches out on her bed with a groan and throws one arm over her eyes, blocking out the lights.
Her muscles pinch as they start to relax, and she takes slow breaths to ease herself through it. She’s been working herself too hard, staying awake for too many hours on missions and not taking proper care of herself. They’re due to return to the Nexus after their mission on Elaaden finishes up, and with any luck, she’ll be able to catch up on some much-needed rest while everyone else deals with their station responsibilities.
She’s just starting to drift out of consciousness when the doors from the bathroom swish open and footsteps enter the room. Her ears perk up and she unwillingly focuses on this new sound, ready to identify this new person in her space to see if they’re a threat or not.
The chances of it actually being a threat are low, and she knows this, but it’s impossible to reverse so many years of training just because she knows it’s Suvi wandering in to retrieve the mug she left stuck sideways on the wall.
Cora moves her arm to rest on her pillow over her head and blinks up at the bunk above hers. Suvi’s humming to herself now, something that may have once been an actual song but now just sounds like random notes strung together without rhyme or reason. It’s making the stabbing in her head worse, but she can’t exactly kick Suvi out of her own room.
“Oh!” Suvi’s voice draws Cora’s attention, and she turns her head to stare blankly up at her. “I’m sorry! I thought I was alone in here. Are you trying to sleep, then?”
“Yeah,” Cora says, keeping it simple so Suvi won’t stay to chat. “Headache.”
Suvi grimaces in what looks like sympathy. “Can I help? Do you want me to get Lexi? Would some tea help you feel better?”
Cora blinks once, slowly, and decides to be nice. “No. Thank you though, Suvi. I just need to rest and I’ll be fine.” She smiles a little to show she means what she says, and Suvi smiles right back.
“Okay!” Her voice is hushed now, more gentle for Cora’s ears, and she starts backing away. “I hope you feel better!”
Cora closes her eyes again and starts searching for the peaceful feeling that had surrounded her before Suvi’s interruption. When it doesn’t return right away, she begins reciting her favorite of Sarissa’s poetry to ground herself.
It’s just starting to work when the door opens again and heavier footsteps approach from the hallway. Her whole body tenses at the interruption, but she doesn’t open her eyes again, throwing her energy into pretending to be asleep so she doesn’t get roped into another conversation. Liam shuffles around, digging through his footlocker for… something, and it takes him forever to find it. He’s still making noise when the doors open for a third time and Gil’s voice floats through the room.
“You find it yet?”
Shuffle shuffle. Rattle. Bang. Liam’s voice, too loud and close to her: “Not yet, man. I swear I had some in here, but…” Bang.
Okay, that’s it.
Cora sits up and swings her feet to the floor. Liam and Gil both take whole steps away from her, but she just digs the heel of her palm back into her eye and uses the exit to the bathroom to make her way out of the noise and toward the Pathfinder’s quarters without saying anything to them.
She should have thought of this first, skipped attempting to nap in the crew quarters to start with. It’s not like she takes naps every day -- since the crash landing on Habitat 7, she’s lucky to get more than five or six hours in a night. She deserves to catch half an hour in between missions, doesn’t she?
Ryder’s doors are locked, and she’s already working on the encryption code when SAM decides to acknowledge what she’s doing.
“Hello, Lieutenant. May I be of assistance?”
She almost laughs at the way he addresses her now, but she just sighs instead. “Can you let me in? I just need some quiet. Ryder said it’s fine.” And he had, a while ago, offering her his room when she needed quiet to work on reports. She thought it was a clumsy come-on, and she’d declined despite her interest, but now…
There’s a pause, then, “Of course.” The red light swirls and turns green and the doors slide open. As soon as she’s fully inside the too-large quarters, the doors shut again and the sounds of the ship are muted. She might as well not be on a ship for all she can hear the usual noises, and the sandy dunes of Elaaden wink at her through tinted windows.
Instead of making herself at home in Ryder’s bed, something she’s not comfortable doing yet despite his assurances that she’s welcome in the room, Cora heads to the couch. She settles on the cushions and props her elbow up on the back of it, chin resting on her knuckles, and gazes out at the planet that was supposed to be their second Golden World.
She can see little alien bugs skittering over the sand, tiny feet barely disturbing the grains. A breeze disturbs the colorful leaves and makes her smile; from the climate-controlled interior of the ship, it looks beautiful. She’d want to go exploring if she didn’t know the surface temperatures can be high enough to kill the unwary.
Ryder hasn’t updated the team in a while, but everything’s probably fine. It’s been weeks since their first disastrous touchdown on Habitat 7, and Ryder’s skills at fighting and leading a team have improved since then. Even the decision to take Drack today was the right one, but being left behind pricks at her nerves.
That’s probably what caused her headache, honestly. The worry about him out there without her to watch his six, not the hours of working on reports.
Farther in the distance, Cora can see the little outpost bustling with figures. She watches them going about their business, wondering how their lives might have been different if they hadn’t rebelled or had landed on Kadara instead of here.
She’s dozing before she realizes it, her head lolling forward and slipping off her hand. She does this twice before chuckling and resting her cheek directly on the back of the cushion so she can still see outside. It’s soothing, in its way, to see how life found its way in this universe despite all the odds and everything going against it.
The next time she has conscious thought, she’s curled up on her side with a blanket tucked up under her chin. She’s warm and cozy and she doesn’t want to move, so she just snuggles closer to the warmth and…
And…
Wait.
She opens her eyes and blinks into the Pathfinder’s quarters. She’s facing the opposite way than she had been before, away from the windows, and someone’s tucked her in, and someone’s fingers are dragging through the longer hair on top of her head in a way that’s almost too soothing for her to stay awake.
Ryder.
“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Ryder’s voice is full of laughter, and Cora turns a little to blink up at that smiling face. “SAM told me you came in here and fell asleep, so I thought I’d check on you, and then you were just too pretty to leave on your own.”
Cora sits up so he can’t see her blushing. The blanket falls into her lap, and now that Cora’s faculties are returning to her, she knows it’s been hours. It’s dark outside, the lights in the cabin dimmed, and when she turns around she can see Ryder wearing a ridiculous Blasto shirt and comfy pants.
He’s in his pajamas, ready to sleep, and instead he’s been keeping her company on his couch instead of kicking her out to return to the crew quarters where she belongs. What will the others say when they realize she’s been in here alone with him for so long?
She dismisses that thought as soon as it appears in her head. She’s not a child and they haven’t done anything wrong. Gossip’s already been going around the ship about their long conversations and visits to the Tavetaan together. This won’t be any different.
“I’m sorry,” she says, speaking before she realizes she intends to apologize. “I needed to rest earlier and the crew quarters were too busy.”
Ryder’s still smiling at her, a soft little thing that gives too much of his thoughts away. That’s part of what makes him surprisingly good at getting allies -- how genuine he looks all the time. “It’s fine. I said you could use it when I was gone, and I meant it. You’ve been working yourself way too hard.”
Cora grimaces, then she stands and begins folding up the blanket. “Not as hard as you have,” she says, avoiding eye contact until the blanket is folded up into a perfect small square. “You should rest too, not sit here doing reports after spending hours running around in the desert.”
Ryder’s smile actually grows. “Aww, you worried about me?”
Cora rolls her eyes but doesn’t disagree. “Thank you for letting me use your couch, Ryder,” she says.
“Oh, no problem. You could use the bed next time if you want. I told SAM you’re allowed in here whenever.” It’s Ryder’s turn to blush and avoid eye contact now, and Cora’s reminded again of the age difference between them. It’s not inappropriately large, but enough for Cora to feel far more confident than Ryder when she leans down to kiss his cheek.
“Thank you.”
He’s still blushing bright when she leaves.