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Words are unable to speak of love
Like a smile in a whisper does
-- Fairground Attraction, A Smile in a Whisper
Raffi tried to be exasperated at JL and his band of merry misfits. But if she was honest, a luxury she rarely allowed herself because of the negative reactions it so frequently begat, she really needed the distraction that planning this heist was providing. Just thinking about seeing Gabe again was making her jumpy and the idea of curling up in the bottom of the biggest bottle that she could find was more attractive than she wanted to admit.
Hell, she wouldn't entirely put it past JL to have come up with the whole ludicrous scheme because he'd seen her distraction. However, it seemed that it had actually been the Ranger's idea.
The Ranger. The most famous ex-Borg in all four quadrants. (Though JL probably came a very close second.)
She'd heard a lot about the Fenris Rangers, even hiding away in the desert. She'd started following their work, if truth be told. Had been cheering their successes on the deck of her little cabin hideout back on Earth. They managed to be a small spark of hope in the black, and there wasn't much of that left behind after it had all fallen apart so spectacularly out there. After everything that she and JL had worked for. The work that she had sacrificed everything else important in her life for. One unexplained incident on the far side of the galaxy, and everything collapsed.
But, these days, all she could do for the Rangers was raise a glass to them.
Well, no, she thought, that was all I could do, then.
Now, however, she was here and working on a plan to infiltrate a criminal gang and rescue a mad scientist. All the while desperately hoping she could avoid getting JL and the others killed.
And praying that the Ranger - Seven, she reminded herself - didn't get cut up for parts.
Because, amongst other things, that would be a terrible waste of a really fine woman, she thought.
"Stop fangirling and get on with planning," she muttered to herself.
****
"Hands, please. No offence."
"None taken," came the other woman's reply in a gravelly contralto, rich as the hint of bourbon that Raffi could smell on her breath.
There was something disturbingly intimate about standing so close to Seven. And something just disturbing about cuffing her, even if they were tricked out cuffs specifically designed to be easy to open. Even if consent had been given. Even if the woman before her could likely tear her way out of them without breaking a sweat.
There they were in JL's holographic study being watched, studied even, by the whole crew and yet Raffi felt almost as if she and the Ranger were the only two people in the universe.
"Why?" she asked quietly. She was attempting to mask her unease, not to mention her absolute terror that this would all backfire spectacularly and she would have got the last few people who seemed to give a damn about her killed. "Why are you helping them, I mean."
"The evacuation ended and the Neutral Zone collapsed. Someone needed to maintain a semblance of order. I suppose at this point it's... become habit."
"I admire what you do out there. With the Rangers." (Ugh, she thought, corny much?!)
Seven nodded a small acknowledgement and Raffi wondered if she'd said too much.
"Push in and pull..." she said, a little louder and trying for a more businesslike tone.
"Yes."
A small movement by the Ranger and the cuffs sprang open. Raffi automatically reached out to stop them from falling, but Seven's reactions had already controlled their downward motion.
Their fingers brushed together, and it was all Raffi could do not to yelp at the electric jolt of that brief touch.
In a fraction of a second that seemed to last an hour or more, she made fleeting eye contact with Seven.
Then she took a breath and, with a steady voice that she suspected surprised only her, continued her briefing.
****
In the roller coaster ride of horror and terror that followed, Raffi barely had time to consider whether she'd ever see the Ranger again.