[center][h3]What a happy family[/h3][/center]
[center]A collaboration between [@Crossfire] and myself[/center]

Amy stared at Grayson for a moment with an undecipherable expression on her face.

"I'm just thinking about what could have gotten me sick," she finally replied after a few moments, answering his question with honesty but avoiding the obvious, sr†aight-forward response he was looking for. Amy then walked closer to Grayson until they had but a few inches between each other. "But how about this...I can go into town, get some answers, and you stay here and shower and then we can meet up again after that."

As she spoke, Amy slowly wiped a dirty spot on his forehead. He look worn down, and even though she wanted nothing more than to stay there with him, she had to find out what was going on. She imagined the thought had crossed Grayson's mind at some point, and if that was the case, they were both avoiding the possibility, at least for now.

Grayson could tell she had more thoughts than she was telling him, but for the moment, he thought it best not to prod, she'd tell him everything when she was ready. He leaned in, kissed her forehead and spoke quietly as he pulled away.

"Alright love, be careful out there. I'll be right here when ya get back."

He picked up his change of clothes and towel then set off down the hall to the men's room. Blinking in the bright glare of the bathroom lights for a minute, Grayson headed into the leftmost stall, and locked the polymer door behind him. He shrugged off his shirt and dropped it, along with his fresh clothes and towel on the small bench beside the shower. He poked his head into the shower, reached over to start the flow of water, then pulled back to finish undressing as it heated up. As he stepped in and felt the warm spray run over him, his thoughts turned back to Amy and her mysterious illness, and for the first time in a while, the voices in his head started acting up.

[i]'She's hiding something big, come on mate, just because she got her sight back doesn't mean you have to go blind'[/i]
He willed it to shut up, tried to drown it out with his own thoughts, but it was futile, suddenly his head was flooded with voices and they were taunting him with a cacophony of ridiculous possibilities.

[i]'She's allergic to you, just took a while for it to show up'
'Just some bad O.J.? Give me a break'
'She finally realized how disgusting those scars are'
'You knocked her up, game over man'
'It's your fault somehow, you and I both know this[/i]

"ENOUGH!" He shouted, forcing himself back to the here and now. The voices bled away as he started to wash himself, and he directed his thoughts elsewhere. Yeah sure, there was something she wasn't telling him, but whatever it was, big or small, they had each other and they'd take it on together.

Out in town, Amy asked around for a pharmacy. She got ignored by some, hit on by others...but eventually, she was steered in the right direction by an elderly gentleman. The store wasn't too far, about a block and a half down the road. She made her way over there quickly, keeping to herself by ignoring some fight going on nearby which was drawing quite a lot of attention. Eventually, she reached her destination and stepped inside, seeing the clerk behind the counter. 

"Excuse me ma'am, can you help me?"

"Of course, my child. What illness troubles you?" she inquired, her dark-blue skin glowing under the harsh ceiling light.

"Well, I'm not sick..." Amy whispered, her fingers nervously tapping on the glass countertop. The clerk smiled softly in response, not saying a word as she reached for an item somewhere behind her. She then presented it to Amy, setting it on the counter between them. With a nod, Amy started to reach for her coin purse but the clerk put her hand over Amy's, stopping her.

"Please, allow me." 

"Wait, are you sure?" Amy asked, wondering why she was being so generous.

"It's no trouble at all. Now go on, be on your way."

After thanking her, Amy left the store, heading back to the ship in a hurry. Her anxiety was slowly growing, and she was unable to stop it. But she did think about the clerk for a minute or two on the way, especially since she couldn't help but notice that she looked somewhat familiar.

Back on the Revenant, Grayson was just finishing up in the shower and taking a minute to just relax under the heat of the water. His mind wandered back to something one of the voices had said..... what if it was right? What if she was pregnant? How would that work, given their situation? Would the Alliance even let her stay on board if she was? Would he be ready for something like that? He was wholly unfamiliar with everything in that realm of reality, his whole life had been mired in the business of taking lives, not creating them, but despite that, his love for her was strong enough. No mater how tough it'd be, he silently vowed to rise to the occasion if that was indeed what was happening. They were in this together, to the end.

[i]'Are you sure of that?'[/i] the voice chimed in, worming its way back to the foreront of his mind [i]'You ever get that feeling she doesn't trust you entirely? There is precedent for it after all......[/i]

Even as he shrugged off the seeds of doubt, he couldn't help but think back to that night....

As soon as she arrived back on the ship, Amy did her best to avoid her crew mates. She only had to say a quick hello to one of them before locking herself up in her room. She imagined Grayson was in his room as well, possibly waiting for her at this point, but he would definitely have to wait.

[I]This is the moment of truth...[/I] she thought to herself, opening up the tightly-packaged testing kit. Amy quickly glanced over the instructions as she had never been in such position before, but it was actually quite simple. She removed the clear label and lifted her shirt to be able to place the small adhesive on her abdomen. She then reached for the control and pressed the button, waiting in silence for the results as her heart felt it was just about to burst from her chest. 

Grayson was moving in autopilot as he shut off the shower and got out to dry off, his mind completely lost in memory.

[hider= 4 Months Ago]
Grayson walked in to the room, yawning slightly after a long day tuning up the crew's weapons up in the armory. He was only slightly surprised to find Amy lying on top of the bed.
"Ya might as well move in at this rate lass, not like anyone would really care at this point. I certainly don't mind."

She didn't even acknowledge him right away, seemingly lost in thought.
"Hey" he said, patting her hand as he sat beside her on the bed "Somethin' on your mind?"

He cared too much, and that was both a blessing and a curse. it nearly made her cry, but she was stronger than that. A million thoughts raced through her mind before she finally confessed.

"I...um, I was digging around your files. Nothing readily accessible to us," she continued, temporarily changing the topic to ease the tension in the room, "I mean, you know that's what I do and honestly I'm good at it so I was able to read up on your past..."

Amy stared at the ceiling, unable to make eye contact with Grayson for the simple fact that she was afraid of what she might see. 

He could sit there with a look of confusion and bewilderment as she told him this. Question after question flooded his mind, and even as the long-dormant voices in his head flared up to prod at him, he started to speak, as measured and carefully as possible, as if he was verbally navigating a volatile mindfield.

"Why would ya....  I mean... just.... I thought I'd told ya everythin' you wanted ta know about my past? So why?"

"I'm sorry, I was curious!" she replied somewhat defensively, getting up to pace around the room as she spoke "I had to see for myself whether you were actually the person you said you were. None of us aboard this ship are angels to be exact, so I had to do it to have peace of mind!"

"Hey, come here" he slipped his arms around her and pulled her in "I'm not mad, yer right, none of us here are saints. I've done a lot of bad shit in me life, but you're the first good thing to come into it. Wakin' up and just seein' you beside me, it makes all this worth it. I hope you can trust me now that you've read all that, and if there's any lingerin' questions, I'll do my best to tell ya everythin'. I haven't lied to ya yet and I won't start now, so I'll admit it, I've had those kinds of thoughts about you too. Wondered if all of this is even real between us, but however ya feel, I've got to say this, I love you Amy."

Amy paused for a moment, searching for the proper response to give to Grayson. She was unquestionably attracted to him, and she cared for him as well, to the point where she'd put her life in danger if it meant getting to save his. Given the choice, she would easily pick him over any other man she's ever met, and if he were suddenly gone, she would would be devastated; left with an enormous void. Taking all of that into account, Amy then knew the right words to say.

"I love you too, Daniel."

[/hider]
Amy wasn't in their room when Grayson got back there. He thought that maybe she hadn't gotten back yet, or perhaps she was looking for him up in the armory. Just as he was about to lie down and grab his earpiece to give her a check-in call, he remembered there was one other place she could be. They'd had an issue with storage space in the room ever since she moved in and Matija took over Room 3. There simply wasn't enough space to store all of their things in the one room, so they took advantage of the surplus of rooms available and put some of it next-door in Room 9. He went over there and knocked on the door, speaking just loud enough to be heard.

"Ames, you in there?"

For some reason, Amy was startled when Grayson knocked on the door. She was consumed by her own thoughts at the moment, but she took a few seconds to gather herself before walking over to the door. 

"Hey, come on in," she said, stepping aside to let him walk into the room. She quickly closed the door behind him before she spoke. "So, I actually went out to get a pregnancy test, because you know, I had one of the symptoms...but after double-checking, I'm not pregnant."

Amy then waited for his reaction, hoping it'd be a favorable one after just hearing the news.

"You..... what? You thought ya were..... wow." At almost a loss for words, Grayson walk over and sat on the bed, staring down at the little monitor flashing a negative symbol.

"So, how do ya feel, you know, about all this?" he said as he looked up at her and shifted over to give her space to sit.

"Relieved, I guess," Amy replied, sitting down next to him as she reached for his hand. "Well, mainly because I don't know where I'd end up if I was having the baby. I know I'd get dropped off somewhere and we'd be separated, at least until you were finished here for good, but then who knows if we'd even...be together again."

"Nah, ya wouldn't be goin' anywhere." He said, taking er hand and looking her in the eyes "They'd have to send in the entire fuckin' army to try and take ya away, and they still wouldn't have a chance. I don't leave family behind, thought you'd know that after pokin' around in my files."

She looked at him quizzically so he continued.

"Do ya remember way back when we were first gettin' together? I told ya about this woman I used to work with, Julia. She took me under her wing when I was little more than a kid, just startin' out in the 'gun for hire' game. She had a way of calmin' down the voices in my head I thought it was love, but lookin' back, it was far from it. All the same though, for those few years we were together, she was my family. Eventually we ran afoul of some boys from the Merax Syndicate, long story, but when push came to shove, the deal went bad, and I tried, believe me, I tried, but I couldn't save her life. Couldn't stop the bastards from takin' away the only family I'd ever known. I refuse to let that happen again."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," Amy replied, leaning her head on his shoulder as she kept her gaze on the wall across from them. She was relieved to hear Grayson reassuring her he'd stay by her side; it was a welcomed change in her otherwise unstable life prior to meeting him. "I guess it wouldn't be too bad if the results weren't negative, you know? Have a little junior running around, getting into all sorts of trouble just like his daddy...kinda cute if you think about it."

Grayson smiled and chuckled as he brought his arm up and wrapped it around her shoulder. "Oh, the poor ship wouldn't be in one piece for very long if there was a little me runnin' around, or a lil you for that matter, but yeah, never really thought of it before now. I've taken a lot of things out of the universe, good people, bad people, too many to count. Death been followin' me for as long as I can remember, might be nice to bring a bit of life into the world, ya know? Someday, when all this calms down, and we can get a moment to ourselves?"

He turned and kissed the top of her head.
"Should get back down below, Benny's likely returned wit' the other parts by now." He kissed her again "I love you."