Response to Parisindy's challenge: Harper + Suffocating/ Difficulty Breathing
Crying Wolf
Do you want to know what the absolute worst thing about having magog eggs in you is? It isn't the pain. You learn to cope. It isn't the fear they will suddenly hatch early and devour you from the inside out. You learn to lock that fear away where even your subconscious can't reach. It isn't the strange feeling that you can actually feel something foreign moving around inside you. You pretend to yourself you just have an upset stomach. The worst comes after the eggs have been removed. That is when the mothering starts in.
Beka, Trance, and Rommie won't leave me alone. I never have any peace anymore. Trance makes sure I eat enough vegetables and won't let me drink any more Sparky. Beka won't let me stay up past 10 and drags me out of the machine shop at 9:45. Who actually goes to bed at 10? And Rommie is making me excercise. Lots and lots of exercise. And I can't stand exercise. Its all gunna kill me.
But I can't bring myself to say anything. I can't look in their eyes and tell them. Could you? It is like all the fear they had and couldn't show is now being released.
See, here comes Trance. She has some horrible smelling, horrible tasting, steaming hot concoction she thinks is good for me to drink. I am going to have to drink it down before she will leave me alone again. All the while I am smiling like the goop tastes wonderful. Beka's arrival will then, like clockwork, be 20-40 minutes after Trance leaves. She of course will want to make sure I'm not overworking myself. Next Rommie with show up for her shift with the pretence of checking up on the repairs I'm doing. It is driving me insane.
"Harper wake up."
Sweet prophets it is early. Does Rommie have any clue how early it is? No one on the ship is up. I bet even Trance is asleep this early in the morning.
"Wake up Harper. We're going jogging."
Rommie must have a screw loose. There is no way I am ever going jogging, especially this early in the morning. No Way No How Never Ever Ever Ever Ever. All this mothering is going to end right now. This is the last straw. It has gone on for long enough. All I need is for my eyes to wake up and focus well enough so I can actually find Rommie to talk to and then I will be getting back to sleep.
OK. So I've taken up jogging. Round and round I go through decks of Andromeda I didn't even know existed. I don't want to be here, I'd still rather be asleep, and I was fully intending to tell Rommie to take a flying hike...it just didn't quite happen. Rommie, you see, was wearing spandex; very, very motivating spandex. Thus, so far I've now been subjected to three days of motivated huffing, puffing, and gasping for air hell.
"Harper, are you OK?"
Harper's unmoving form lay silently upon the deck.
"If you needed a break from jogging just say so Harper."
Harper didn't move.
"If you think I'm falling for you crying wolf three days in a row you can forget it."
Rommie noticed a thin stream of blood start to trickle from Harper's mouth.
"Harper! Andromeda get help down here fast!"
She flung herself down on top of Harper. He didn't seem to be breathing.
"HARPER!"
Rommie quickly pinched his nose and started administering mouth to mouth but she wasn't getting any sort of reaction from Harper at all. Another check confirmed that at least he still had a pulse.
She proceeded on with another round of mouth to mouth. It was then that Rommie tasted the ketchup and noticed Harper was kissing her back. His arms had also started snaking up around her neck.
Rommie stared directly into Harper's eyes. "You are so dead Harper." Then, perhaps realizing what she had just said, Rommie suprised herself and Harper with a kiss back before she slapped him for the third day in a row.
By FendyAgain