Post by Scribe on Aug 23, 2009 10:21:04 GMT -5
NEW EARTH COLONY, GAIA
MERRICK RESIDENCE
STARDATE: 10.10.2169
After that near miss with Sloane, Tom debated whether his next action. They had mutually agreed not to speak of what happened at Risa but after having faced the possibility where Sloane could have been pregnant, Tom knew there was one person to whom he had no choice but to confess to. Derick Rickman was more than his friend, he was a brother. The closest thing to family Tom Merrick had for a long time. Derick had saved his life on more than one occasion.
He owed his best friend the truth.
Tom asked Derick over that evening, preferring to it at his home than at the Beasts. He had no idea what to say to the big bloke and hoped that Derick wouldn't take it too badly. He'd been seeing that Elena Rose bird but that didn't mean anything. Blokes could be pretty weird when it came to ex-girlfriends and Sloane had been more than that.
"Lexie?" Derick's voice came from the open door, where the screen was closed. "It's uncle Drick," he called out, arriving on time (read: ten minutes early) and knocking on the door. Tom had asked him over, he'd thought nothing out of the ordinary because they did this all the time.
"In here mate," Tom was on the sofa, feeling as if he was about to step in front of a firing squad.
"Oh..." Letting himself in, as he'd done over all the years, Derick moved inside and greeted his friend. "Hey. No Lex?"
"Uhm...she's with Ren tonight," Tom replied, unable to look Derick in the eyes. "I'm having synth," he lifted his glass. "Red Eye's in the fridge if you want one."
"Oh, with... Chrissie..." Derick snerked and went straight for the fridge to grab a cold one. There was a fresh six-pack in there and for a moment, he frowned. Popping the top off his bottle, Derick shut the fridge and returned to the living room. "Ellie's birthday is coming up so I'm going to put in for some leave here soon," he said, dropping into the big chair across from his friend.
"No worries," Tom replied taking a big gulp of synth. "How's thing with you two anyway? You've been seeing quite a bit of her these last few months." Tom winced at the stupidity of the comment. It wasn't as if he didn't have front row seats for the Derick/Elena Rose romance. "Going well is it?"
Looking across at his friend, Derick eyed him suspiciously. "Yes," he said, cautiously, finally seeing something was up. "She's... incredible." Something like a private smile stole over his face and he leaned back. "Why?"
Another gulp of synthe and it did fuck all to calm his nerves. "You remember that trip I took to Risa two months ago?"
Tom looked a little green. "Yeah, with Sloane," Derick nodded. "You ok?"
"Trip was fine, we hated the fuck out of it as you can imagine. You know the typical horse and pony show that fucking diplomats love to put on." Tom sucked in his breath. "You know what Risans are like about sex and stuff. The concept that a man and woman might be just be friends, is completely alien to them."
"Right." Derick nodded. "And life isn't life without scantily clad women," he chuckled.
"On our way home, they slipped something in our food." Tom met Derick's gaze.
"Our, being.. ? You and Sloane?" Suddenly, he had a feeling as to the reason his favourite little girl wasn't here tonight.
"Yeah," Tom nodded. "Me and Sloane." Don't make me have to say it Der, Tom was pleading. He hoped that that Derick would get it without him having to say it.
Silent for a moment, Derick took another drink of his beer. "Something being…one of their aphrodisiacs?" He didn't need the answer to that, or anything else. It was all written on Tom's face. Tom and Sloane, on a shuttle for three days after being given a very powerful drug designed for not just sex... sinful sex. And of course, there was the way that Tom acted like he suddenly had a mouse trap snap his balls whenever she came in the room. Sloane had sounded off too. Stilted, way too formal. "Oh."
He took another drink of his beer, eyes meeting Tom's. "So you had sex?" Screaming, wall, eight ways from Sunday sex but sex nonetheless. Derick didn't need Tom to elaborate. "Both of you were slipped something?" he asked, mind screaming into many scenarios because hell, he didn't know what to think.
"Yeah we both had it," Tom replied, unable to meet Derick's gaze. "When it was over, we promised not to talk about it ever. Forget it happened. Sloane means to much to Lexie and I didn't want our friendship any more fucked than it was. The agreement was to never speak of it again."
"Okay..." Derick swallowed down that odd feeling rising up from his gut as he worked out what to say. Tom was his friend, more than a friend and from the shaky way he was talking, there was guilt enough there. He didn't need more, that one side of Derick told the other that wanted to get angry. Why? He had no claim over Sloane anymore and he knew about the side effects of the Risan aphrodisiacs. Hell, some of them, the calm part said, were so strong that if you didn't fuck something, you could die. Which is what should be considered here, that the two ranking military officers of Gaia could have died? But... but... but nothing, he told himself ruthlessly.
"Well..." Derick began, still sitting here because this was Tom and he needed to be Tom's friend right now and not Sloane's ex. "Now you know why I came to work with a smile on my face every day," he said, although the humour in it was diluted from what Derick had intended.
Tom almost laughed but he wasn't quite done yet. "A week ago, there was a possibility she was pregnant."
Derick's eyes locked onto Tom as his gut twisted, like he'd been punched. "And...?" he asked, now the one that couldn't look at his friend.
"She wasn't but for a minute there, I thought she was and I had to deal with the fact that if she were pregnant, what was I going to do about it." Tom replied. "Its part of the reason why I decided to tell you because...secrets, they have a way of coming out and I didn't want you lie to you about this. You deserved the truth for all the shit we've been through together."
Taking a deep breath, Derick let it out, his jaw setting. Kids were something they couldn't agree on, a decision that only Lexie in all her cuteness had made him reconsider. "What…about since Risa?" he asked. "I mean, you didn't have a choice on the shuttle…but what about now?"
"I can't think about that now," Tom shook his head. "She's always belonged to someone else. If it wasn't Hayes it was you." Tom rose to his feet. "I always knew that if I started up with McRae, especially when I was drinking I would have screwed her over as completely as my old man did my mother. So I never did anything about it. And then she was with Hayes and I knew how you felt about her so I didn't..."
Another reason why Derick needed to be here for his friend, to support him as he would had this been any other woman. He rolled his neck, popping out vertebrae and sighed. "Thanks... for telling me...yourself. She's incredible and sometimes I wish it had worked out, that we were still together and I still love her, always will..." A thought dawned on him and Derick sighed. "Tom, look. It's.. It's alright, you know. If.." Christ, how to put this without sounding like something that should be on Gaia's one and only talk show. "If you want to see where it goes." Those words came from a bigger man than Derick had been when he'd walked in here tonight.
"No," Tom was already shaking his head. "I can't," he said showing a rare moment of vulnerability. "I still wake up in the morning, thinking Alex is going to be next to me and I still expect her sometimes to be brushing her hair when I walk into our bedroom. I don't know if I'm going to be able to let her go but I can't even think about Sloane, not that way until I know for sure. It wouldn't be fair."
"Oh..." Derick nodded, wincing at the raw pain still in his friend's voice. What to say to that?
"Are we okay Der?" Tom asked, he needed to hear it. "I have been trying to figure out how to tell you because I knew how you still felt about her. Sure you're with Ellie and she's tops but Sloane...well you know better than anyone, she's a tough act to follow."
"Yes, she is." Derick got to his feet, seeing what it was Tom needed now. "Of course we're okay," he said, giving his friend a smile. "What you and I have, this friendship…no woman, ex or not, can come between it. You know that, right?" he asked.
Despite that kind of weird gut feeling, Derick said it as much for himself as for Tom.
"Good," Tom sighed with relief, "cause I was having the worst ideas that this was going to end up with a phaser rifle stuck up my arse." He managed a smile.
Laughing, Derick felt all the tension drain right out of him. "Nah.. " he shook his head. "Seriously... thanks for telling me," he said.
"Thanks for understanding," Tom said genuinely grateful. Letting out a deep breath, he added, "Well seeing as how I've got the night off and Ren's babysitting, how about we go down to Beasts? Oh did you hear, Orphan Annie's up the duff again."
"She's what? Jesus Christ," Derick chuckled. "She's making her own platoon," he said, clapping Tom on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go see what see what kind of trouble we can get in," he said. "We should go fuck with Thing One and Thing Two."
"I used to think that you could shag anything that moved at nine paces but that fucking kid," Tom shook his head. "He's going for a record."
Derick chuckled. "I don't know. He's been acting…cagey lately. Sticking around the barracks. I hope that means he's studying for the Corporal's exam. Look..." There was something else he wanted to say. "In the event that you do decide to see Sloane, it's okay. In the end, I want my friends happy." He nodded once to Tom.
Tom shrugged. "Not going there right now but that's nice to know."
He couldn't ask for anything else. "I heard Fabien's got a new synth in, let's go."
"God I could use some wild turkey..." Tom sighed. "Sometimes its tough to be a recovering alcoholic."
"Could be worse," Derick replied. "Could be locked in an Orion brig," he chuckled. "Remember that...?" he said, using it to solidify what he'd said earlier. They were friends, brothers…that nothing could come between.