#kate lyons

[flyingblakeryan]

Ryan,

If you need someone to talk to... If you need a friend... I could use the company while this op unfolds.

Thurman is down there too.

- Kate

You're always welcome in the cockpit, Katie.

I wouldn't mind the company either. Our hardest job will be to wait.

[callsigntitan]

from x

"I mean." Oliver swung the toes of his heavy boots off the edge of the doctor's exam bed innocently. "I wouldn't say I'm good. But I've always been better at putting things back together than taking them apart, you know?"

Kate smiled at her hands as she worked, demonstrating a field stitch that was simple, quick, and effective in a pinch - or under fire. "I do."

"Ennie has been working with me on using my biotics and my senses." Oliver wrapped his arms around himself before he shrugged. He watched an empty wall. "It's not a miracle. It's just a muscle. I remember the nights Ennie was on assignment or in the labs or under the knife or goddess knows what - at the whim of those monsters - and I was alone. I'd lay there in our bed but I could hear... everything."

His green eyes snapped into focus, finding the doctor's soft own. A small, easy smile fit his pretty face. "The sounds of my brothers breathing ten rooms away. The sounds of them having sex."

An eyebrow arched as he remembered with perfect clarity. "Laughing. Crying. Night time was the only time we had to ourselves. I spent every bit of it with Enzo but we all had our coping mechanisms. I hated being able to hear them. To smell them. To feel the tingle of their tickle every time one of them got a little too worked up. Those were the nights that I wanted, more than anything, to just close my eyes and wake up on a beach. Like all of it had been a terrible dream."

Oliver huffed a little chuckle and ran a self-conscious hand through his hair. "I didn't want to live like that. I couldn't tell them what I was nor could I explain why I knew the things that I knew."

He shrugged, eyes far away again as he remembered. "There's a pack of coyotes that nest a klick out but have scoped out your chicken coop for the last three nights. I expect they'll take their meal soon."

He blinked back to reality and offered a sheepish smile, taking the outstretched needle from the doctor to quickly mimick the demonstrated field stitch as she moved on to explaining the contents of the supply kit she was furnishing.

"I was lucky." He decided to offer by way of explanation, hopefully tossing details of his life into the air between them. "The village I ended up at. The people there. They knew that I was different but they weren't afraid of me. And they helped me learn to be more. More human."

Oliver couldn't help his little sniffle as he thought. "I don't think that's a bad thing to want."

[callsigntitan]

Phoenix Griffin, I would like to run baseline assessments on you and your enhancements... and I would just like to get to know you too - any friend of Mason's is a friend of mine. Please feel free to come see me in the med bay at your earliest convenience (you don't want me to have to send Zeus to fetch you, believe me). - Dr. Kate Lyons.

Please don't send Zeus, Dr. Kate!

Masons been on me since I got here about seeing you so don't blame him okay it's my fault. I get real anxious about doctors because of. You know. Everything. And. Well I'm gonna bring Enz-Ares with me, okay? He keeps me safe and he'll definitely snap you in half if you try to hurt me

[luca-moreno]

I need to make love to you tonight

(so this was totally not what I set out to write??) --

The worst part about taking a stray warp round and the cracked rib that it had resulted in was ending up in the medbay.

It was still weird, hunched on the biobed while Dr Kate worked around him. She gave him a tight, but vaguely reassuring smile as she worked on him, smearing the rapid healing gel over his side with a gloved hand to help with the bruising. It would take a while for the bones to knit, but there wasn’t much to be done about that.

The gash on his thigh from his dive to escape the brute bearing down on him in the seconds before Ajax got to it was a different story. The skin pulled and itched where it was being fused back together and the discomfort must have shown enough on his face for Kate to sigh softly and pat his shoulder.

“You’ll be sore there for a while, Luca. I’m sorry about that.”

“Hey, at least I still have my leg. And all my other bits,” he tried to smile. He held up a hand and wriggled his fingers weakly. “Could have been worse.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “It could hav-“

She was cut off by heavy footsteps and someone new shoving their way into the room. There was a brief flurry of curses and barked demands at the other staff before the curtain was yanked back.

“Where is he? Katie, tell me he’s alright-“

Luca’s face split into a wide grin at the sight of the pilot. Ryan’s expression, clearly worried when he stepped into the medbay, softened the moment their eyes met. He rushed to Luca’s side.

“My boy, are you-”

“He’s fine,” Kate interjected quickly. There was a tightness to her voice a distant part of Luca noticed, but he couldn’t dwell on it because Ryan was suddenly hugging him and cradling Luca’s head tenderly against his chest. Luca breathed him in, noticed the slightly fevered tempo of his heartbeat. It had been a successful mission over all, but Luca wasn’t the only one who’d come back with bloodied boots and in need of some medical attention.

Luca wondered if Ryan, always cool under pressure, had really been that worried.

“I’m okay,” he said into Ryan’s shoulder. He let the warmth from Ryan’s arms around him seep in deep. It wasn’t just the physical he soaked up, but the knowledge that he was loved and missed and treasured. He felt bad that Ryan had been concerned enough to leave his post to check on him but mostly grateful too. The first thing he’d wanted when the squad had stepped back onboard the Berlin was find Ryan and kiss him and it had killed him that he couldn’t do just that. “I promise, Blake,” he murmured when Ryan didn’t let him go straight away.

“He is,” Kate said again and they drew apart. Ryan kept his arm around Luca as he turned to face the Dr, and tilted his head. Luca had heard the slightly pinched tone to her words too.

There was a moment of awkward silence as Luca watched the former lovers regard each other.

It was Kate that spoke first. Just one word that sounded like it was carved from the very centre of her chest. “Blake?” she whispered.

A small swallow against Ryan’s throat was the only indication he’d heard. He turned to Luca and tucked him closer and Luca was forced to peek over Ryan’s shoulder only to see the doctor turn away, a stricken expression on her face.

Ryan hesitated, cupped Luca’s face and stared into his eyes as though to assure himself Luca really was alright.

Then he pressed a kiss to Luca’s forehead and reached out long enough to catch Kate’s hand. “I’m sorry,” he said and Luca knew Ryan’s tones well enough now to know the heartfelt sincerity behind it. He blinked, then frowned slightly as his gaze flicked between Ryan and the doctor. There was something at play here he didn’t quite understand and he found himself gripping Ryan’s hand nervously as Ryan waited the scant beats for Kate to reply.

She forced a smile but it was watery. “You never let us call you that.”

“I ken,” Ryan said. “I cannae explain it, it-“

“No, I understand. You love him. And I can see it. I can see it all over you.” Her gaze flicked to Luca briefly. “All over the both of you. And I am happy for you, Ry. I mean that. But… It still hurts a little too. I think it always will.”

“Katie-“

She held up a hand as a complicated shift flowed across her features. Luca had always thought of her as beautiful, he’d been jealous of her once, deep down in the places of his heart he refused to acknowledge. It seemed so strange that he would be part of the reason she looked so heartbroken now.

“No. No more. Your boy is going to be okay. In fact, the grafting will be finished in an hour and you can take him back to your room as long as you make sure he stays off his feet for the next twelve hours.”

“Aye, I can do that.”

“Then if you’ll excuse me, I have other patients to see.” She focused her attention on Luca for a moment. “One hour, Luca. Then you can go.”

“Okay,” he said, his voice smaller than it probably needed to be. “Thank you, Dr Kate. For… uh..”

She waved him off, not saying anything more as she walked away.

When she was gone, Luca exhaled heavily. “I think she might hate me,” he said miserably, mumbling it into Ryan’s shoulder.

“No, love,” Ryan’s chuckle was forced lightness. “She doesn’t. It’s not your fault.”

“It kinda is. For existing-“

“It was inevitable. Nothing could can keep us apart. I ken that now.”

“I don’t know, that brute came pretty close today.” It was supposed to be an attempted at humor but it fell flat for both of them. Luca stared at the floor. “Sorry.”

Ryan cupped the back of his neck and drew him close. “It’s alright, love.”

Luca savored the press of Ryan’s forehead against his. The adrenalin dump of the battle was starting to catch up to him. He suddenly felt exhausted, even with Ryan there to prop him up. “Has it been an hour yet? I need you so much. I need...”

The brute’s roar and the bellow of Ajax’s battle cry as he ripped the brute apart suddenly echoed between his ears. 

Kalahira, it had been close.

“-I need to make love to you tonight.” It came out as a rush in the end.

“Ah, sweetheart.” Ryan kissed him, slow and sweet until the anxiety receded. His gaze was tender with promise as he drew back. “It will be me making love to you. Over and over until my love is the only thing you can feel.”

Luca’s eyes pricked and his chin wobbled with held back relief. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

[flyingblakeryan]

I saw Luca in the mess hall the other day. I saw him with you. I saw the way you looked at each other.

And... I won't lie. It hurt.

But I'll hold onto what you said - about always being a part of you, because despite everything, I wouldn't change the time we had together.

My only regret it that it was so short.

You opened up my world, Ry. I hope you know that.

But most of all.... I hope you're happy.

And I really do mean that with all my heart.

-/ Kate

Aw Katie, my Katie. I truly am.

I never meant to hurt you or Thurman but I'd eat this boy whole just to keep him close. I can't keep away from him. This pull that I feel for him, its something in the blood. I just can't walk away. When I'm not next to him I'm wishing I was. When I'm not inside him I'm fucking dreaming about it. I didn't know it could be like this, Katie. This desire that I feel for him. It's consuming and I feel like I'll never be sated because I can't get him close enough.

[luca-moreno]

Sometimes Luca missed things that should have been obvious. Sometimes basic social graces and expectations of earthborn humans sailed directly over his head.

But even he knew that the kiss Lieutenant Ryan planted on him in the middle of a crowded bay had sent a ripple of discomfort through some of the people he cared the most about.

"I want to see Ben," he said stubbornly, planting his feet against the metal floor when the medbay door slid open.

Kate regarded him a closed off expression.

"He's resting."

"I still want to see him. Please, doc. He's my friend and he got hurt and I really need him to know he's not alone and whatever that was before, I-"

"You really have no idea, do you?"

"What?"

Kate opened her mouth to speak and Luca caught a flash of something painful in her gaze before she snapped her mouth shut.

Sometimes he missed things, but he couldn't miss that.

"LT was just... Is that why you're mad? It is, isn't it? I don't know why, it didn't mean anything and it's not like you're never seen him kiss anyone else before. You should see him on poker nights-"

Luca laughed weakly but Kate didn't join in. His gaze flicked over her shoulder and his face fell. "Even if you're angry, it's not fair that you're trying to stop me seeing Ben. And I know you're still letting Zeus and Cap in so..."

A long moment passed before Kate stepped out of his way. Luca shuffled gratefully into the medbay and towards the bed where the Phoenix was laid out.

"Hey, Benny," Luca stepped closer, taking in the ink across his back, the wound being repaired. Ben being rebuilt.

Ben's dark lashes fluttered but they didn't open as Luca stroked his hair.

"Is he under?" Luca asked, biting his lip. He hated seeing Ben like this.

Kate's silence seemed like answer enough. Luca brushed his fingers through Ben's hair again, wondered if would be weird if he sang a little lullaby.

"Oh. I guess that's why.... Look, can you let him know I came to see him at least?"

[captain-cerrillo]

x

Isaac tipped his head to Kate as he entered, aware but unbothered by her careful ears as he posted by the door, fiddling with the pockets on his running shorts. “I keep wanting to make you human because I think it’s easier for me to understand.” His voice was low, but he knew the Phoenix would hear him.

He hadn’t been able to sleep since he’d started wondering about the children that the phoenix used to be. “I’m embarrassed and ashamed of what I said to you,” he admitted with a light shrug. His semi-permanent furrow deepened as he approached the prone Hurricane, dark eyes taking in the severity of the wound. “It was foolish and insensitive and completely disrespectful of your life experiences. Of which, I know almost nothing.”

Isaac sighed, casting a glance at Kate with silent questions. She only nodded in return. “I apologize, Ben.” The captain’s steel stance sort of softened as he gestured to the general area around them. “There is no rulebook for this. I’m more aware than anyone of all the ways I am falling short, but I always appreciate honesty.” His gaze found the vanguard’s eyes. “Thank you, again, for saving them.” He shrugged with a small smile. “Us. Again.”

[flyingblakeryan]

Follows x - Shuttle Crew Docking with the Berlin

“Wait up.” Ryan half-jogged to catch up to Kate before she hit the elevator to the lower decks. He threw an arm around her, pulling her into a side hug as they crossed the threshold and the doors slid shut.

“You know you cannae lose me, yea?” He pointed to his chest. The spot was clothed but she’d memorized it perfectly – the goofy sketch of a metal arm, a pair of faded cowboy boots, and a fixed wing biplane. “Part of me now.” He laced their fingers and they leaned against each other as the elevator slid smoothly to the lowest part of the massive ship.

Ryan spotted Thurman, only a few feet in front of them, already watching the elevator when the door slid open. The hurt on his face danced with confusion as he watched the once-lovers untangle their hands for the last time. The pilot blew the cowboy one more kiss before he made his way to the XO’s side, if only because that’s where Isaac would go first.

And Luca, like a good boy, would follow his Captain.

“You shoulda taken me up on that offer, Commander. Coulda been space pirates. You’d look real good in a hat and I’ve always thought an eyepatch might suit me nicely.” He gestured lightly to the containment doors that hid the shuttle’s approach but made a shudder ripple through the floor at their feet when Kodi landed. “Ah. Too late now.”

Marie’s chuckle was genuine but flat. Her foot tapped against the floor and Ryan was glad to know he was not the only one who couldn’t stand the separation a moment more. Only, the one she was waiting for, was waiting for her too, some part of him remembered.

Ethan and Mason were first through the containment doors. Ryan admired the way their bodies seemed to mirror each other, down to their smallest movements. They weren’t the first couple to get married on a ship he happened to be piloting on the edge of known space, but they were definitely the ones he had the most hope for. Shit, he thought to himself as they made small conversation in a huddle with Kate, Archer, and Ben, they moved like they’d been married for years.

“Is it serious?” Marie called to the captain as he approached with Eva right beside him. They were not touching but were damn near it the whole time. Ryan already knew he was about to disappear for days, unreachable except by electronic communication and only ever during posted hours. And strangely, some part of him was envious.

Isaac waved a hand as they approached, gesturing to the Phoenix troop huddled around Ben. “Did you know they have healing powers? Fucking nanites? In their blood?” Isaac swiped a hand through his helmet hair. “I feel like I should have known this? Does the Alliance know this? I should have known this.”

“That’s disgusting.” Thurman called from somewhere in the commotion, making Ryan chuckle.

“He’s gonna be okay,” Eva teased, patting Isaac’s armored shoulder and winking at the pilot and the commander as they passed.

“I’m sure you’ll take real good care of him,” Ryan joked back, laughing at Isaac’s glare.

“Luca.” Marie breathed his name, forcing the smile to fall from the pilot’s face as his blue eyes searched the doorway with an ache in his chest. How many nights had he remembered the way Luca looked at him with those soft brown eyes. The way his eyelashes fluttered when Ryan pressed into him. The feel of his soft body and the sounds that fell from his mouth. The pilot shifted, already half hard at the memories.

The blonde phoenix said something to the Major and swatted Ben’s butt with a brilliant smile before beelining to Marie who was heading for everyone’s favorite engineer and the dark stranger behind him.

Ryan forced his patience, refusing to elbow his way through the small crowd. He didn’t want to be overbearing. He didn’t want to be possessive. He didn’t want to be creepy. But gods. He just had to see him. Just had to know he was whole. And maybe smell his hair.

A smile bloomed across Luca’s face when their eyes locked. Ryan could feel his own features soften. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears as his eyes took in Luca again. They moved toward each other until the pilot could hear the engineer’s proud shouting. “See?” He gestured to the large shuttle behind him. “I got her back in one piece.”

“Aye.” The tiniest smile curled Ryan’s lips. “Never doubted you would.” He stopped in front of Luca but let his eyes drift the clean lines of Kodi, admiring the new paint job as much as the mind behind it. “You did real good, kid.”

“The upgrades you helped me with to secure the transmiss-”

Ryan’s palms had been itching since they’d first hit the cluster but with Luca so close, so perfect and so close, he moved to do the only thing he could think of to stop it. He let his fingers dip into the engineer’s thick curls and pulled him closer, swallowing his surprised, rambling sentence as he bent to press a warm kiss to the boy’s soft lips.

He lingered, too afraid to open his eyes, too in love with the smell of Luca’s breath and the soft slip of his lips, before he pulled away just enough to nuzzle his face into the engineer’s curly temple with a chuckle. “I dunnae give a damn about the shuttle, my boy. But I’m real glad you’re okay.”