forgive sounds good[rade/open]

[arabella]

Arabella had still not gotten over how Rade let it slip about what happened to her. For now she was to remain on the Riley. Her and Faye hadn’t talked much about things were going to go. Mostly she stayed out of the captain’s way until things were decided. She didn’t want to harp on her about if she were to remain or eventually be dropped someone or go on a friendly ship-like the Atlas. Just keeping her clam. But most of her things were kept things packed up just in case she was dropped somewhere along the way.

As she walked around the kitchen, tonight she was working with protein and some canned foods. The protein would be on the side but she’d add some spices and seasonings to flavor it up. On the side she was making some canned vegetables mixed up to make a nice ensemble. There wasn’t much for meat so until their next stop-and if Faye put aside money for some-she was improvising. Which being out on her own this long gave her plenty of time to improvise.

Today she pulled down the sleeves of her sweater as she tried to think of what vegetables to mix together. Added some pepper to it and it’d taste splendid. A couple people passed by her but she didn’t look up as she thought about what to do for tonight’s meal. Mostly she tried to cook dinner for everyone to sit down at. During the day she’d cook a lunch that she’d put in the fridge for people to eat unless there were leftovers from the night before. Breakfast is when people normally made something themselves or different. People had different sleeping schedules and some didn’t eat breakfast at all-or at very little. Why butt her nose in? Plus her cooking was a little extra to help pay for her passage.

In her time here she hadn’t made her way to look at the Verse she was traveling. Not the sky or anything. Never had she once in all the ships she traveled-had she taken a real good look. Passing through something she had and at night Arabella saw the starry skies. But really looking through the window of the cockpit or out the small window of the bridge-that she hadn’t done. One day she might though. Today was not her day and tomorrow may not be either. But one day she would. It was all a matter of time. Just like one day she would go home and see if maybe her father’s friend would give her a few of her father’s things and see if he had anything else of her parents. Those were things she really wanted back. Like the pictures of he rand her brother. There was only one she had and it was beginning to fade but through it all, she could still make out his smiling face.

It was things like these that made her lose her train of thought when in the kitchen-or elsewhere in general.

[radegrasan]

"Well make sure you tell Faye we need new sparkplugs for the engine, Echo. I'm going back to the cockpit now. And I'll tell 'her' as well. Gotta go through the kitchen anyway." Rade said as he left the engine room.

Rade liked being around Echo, it seemed she was the only one aboard who he could have a decent conversation with. Delilah was nice too, but sometimes a bit too childish for his tastes. And to think that girl had two years on him.

As he made his way back to the cockpit, Rade couldn't help but think that Echo was pretty much the only one aboard that he actually got along with. Faye hated his guts, that much was clear. And Brian, sure he treated him decently but Rade could tell by Brian's way of acting that he'd rather be rid of him as well. Like he blamed Rade for coming aboard or something. As for Arabella, Rade figured that was a damn shame. That girl sure knew how to overreact.

Rade actually liked the idea of harboring a fugitive. That could ignite maybe some chases in the future, where he could really put the pedal to the metal, like on Whitefall. Also, he had been spoiling for a good gunfight as well. He hadn't seen action since the barbrawl with Jaclyn and Trevor. Rade thought it was too bad Faye didn't hire Jaclyn. She really was a girl after his own taste, that's why he let her have the lion's share of the loot that day. Rade chuckled a laugh when he thought back of Trevor going through the genuine glass window in the bar. Oh, good times, good times.

Rade walked through the corridor, up to the door of the kitchen, and as usual Arabella was there, cleaning or cooking. Rade had vowed to keep his mouth shut toward her, and just to pretend she wasn't there, but she needed to know.

Rade walked through the kitchen in a slow pace, but didn't stop. He just wanted to go through the kitchen as fast as possible, and deliver the message Echo had told him to give.

"Echo's turning off the electricity in a couple of compartiments, including this one." Rade said as he kept walking. "Just a head's up."

There, he delivered the message. Now all he had to do was walk through the other door, and made his merry way toward the cockpit. Rade kept walking, the door was so close, yet with Arabella being present in that room, so far away as well. As he almost reached the door, only thing Rade could think of was:

"Please don't let her say anything."

[arabella]

Arabella was completely lost in her thoughts. She was figuring that at some point maybe she should think about finding another ship or a border planet to move on to. Though she didn’t want to because so many people knew about her now, it was probably a better idea. Between that and the altercation with Rade, things were not going well for her now. How could one ship cause her so much trouble? She had been doing so well all these years until now. Aiya! Aiya Rade and this ship! Most of the reason she was still angry is her and Rade hadn’t talked out what had happened and what was said. If they could only talk or yell about things-that was all that was needed at this point in time.

It took her a second to register what he told her. With a nod she started to snap out of her thoughts. She turned to watch him walk out. Arabella was torn between hatred, anger and disappointment. Trusting him with that information had been wrong apparently. With a shake of her head she crossed her arms over her chest.

“What is wrong with you? Am I the plague now?” At least the Cpatain still talked to her as well as Brian and Delilah and everyone else. Even if she did hide her fugitive status, they still talked to her. It’s not like she was a mass murder nor a bank robber-she simply ran away from an arranged marriage. Plus, she was not Alliance at heart. She may not be a “true Independent” mainly do to the fact that she knew how to handle people in the Alliance which was a nice skill to have.

[radegrasan]

“What is wrong with you? Am I the plague now?”

"Just keep walking Grasan. She's not worth the discussion." Rade thought. "Just keep... and why am I stopping? Ah gorrammit!"

Rade stopped in his tracks, wondering why he stopped instead of just walking on. Nothing good was going to come from this. The argument would just get heated again, causing her to cry and then her savior Brian would come to rescue her once again, causing Rade to be the bad guy again and getting blamed.

"No. Not the plague." Rade answered. "But I just figured the less I say to you the better. Hell, can't say anything wrong if I don't say anything at all, right?"

So there it began once again. The argument. Just like in the infirmary. So far he had been avoiding Arabella, and he practically lived in the cockpit. He would eat when everyone was asleep or busy, but never with the crew at the table in the evenings. But maybe just a small part of him wanted to talk things over, and another part of him actually felt sorry for her, she was on the run after all. But then again, the chances of this argument escalating were big, and Rade had no intention of being the bad guy once again.

[arabella]

All Arabella wanted some was some answers. She hadn’t had any form of answers from him since the altercation. Frankly she was trying to find ways to help her out with her fears. Sometimes she went to infirmary and simply sat around Brian to try and get used to being around guys all the time without panicking like she tends to do. After long periods of time she would tend to freak out and go into one of her episodes-unless there were some women around as well. But now she was slowly getting better. Maybe at some point she’d work on the gun thing as well.

“Ok well I figured we might as well get over this since I will probably be on here for a little while. Frankly there’s no reason why you should have to avoid all the meals just because I was around.” Arabella shook her head. Yes women did tend to freak out a bit more. But Arabella was often very soft spoken. Just until Brian, Rade had known a lot more about her until things started to come about-in a sense. He didn’t know much into her past just enough to know that she wasn’t a spy and running from the bad guys like everyone else.

“Honestly Rade I’m only pissed because the one thing you knew I was scared of-revolvers-you pulled on me. You could have gone about it any other way seeing as I knew nothing about any jobs this ship was pulling. Frankly I figured it was best I get off the ship rather then tell you guys who I was.” Now she a at point between rambling and being angry. Mainly she was getting out all her frustrations as to why he couldn’t at least be civil and come around with the rest of the crew. Not like she was going to snap every time she saw him. But now, now she did want some sort of answers.

“Everything I said I said because I was very pissed off, confused and all around worried about myself and this crew at the time. In all my times traveling I had never told anyone besides Bettie about the incident and my new fear. She was also the only one who knew about why I was running. Then I come here and you and now the rest of the crew knows everything. That’s frightening for me and I freaked out-a lot.”

He rambling was probably and good and bad thing. “So I am sorry for everything I said and whatnot. And if you can’t at least be civil then let me know now and I will have Faye drop me off at the next planet. I’ll be out of your hair as well as the rest of the crews.”

[radegrasan]

Rade crossed his arms, and sighed deeply. An apology, that never happened before. No one ever apologized toward him, usually he just got stuck taking the blame by everyone.

He hesitated for a moment, but he figured that if Arabella was showing some good will, he might as well do too. In any case, he could understand where she was coming from, but he hoped that she could understand where he was coming from as well.

"Well don't leave on my account." Rade said. "It's not worth it."

At times like these, Rade's low self-esteem came up, and he kept it up for a purpose. He figured the lower one thinks of himself, the less chance someone can put you down for it. His bad experience on the Alliance boarding school had taught him that.

He walked over to the table and leaned against it. He might as well tried telling Arabella where he was coming from as well.

"But I hope you understand where I'm coming from as well." Rade said. "If you turned out to be an Alliance spy, we could all go down for a long time, if not for a lifetime. Add to that the fact that Alliance cruiser found us so quickly on Whitefall... I only pulled a gun on you to stop you Bella, I was never gonna shoot you or something."

Rade sighed again. He looked up to the ceiling, and then down to the ground.

"Well, that and..." Rade continued. "... the fact I told you so much about myself. I was angry as well because I shared so much about myself with you, and I felt betrayed."

This all wasn't easy for Rade. He had never put up himself so vulnerable before. He wasn't used to situations like these, and it only happened a couple of times before in the past, when he was arguing with Kylie when they were kids.

"But I hope you understand where I'm coming from as well." Rade said. "I showed you the scar on my wrist. I told you what happened to me. Those memories of the bad times then came up as well."

Rade pushed himself further on the table, and sat on it now. This was difficult for him, because he never had to before.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is: I'm sorry for pulling a gun on you."