Page 157 of Every Almost

She'd been sitting there for maybe twenty minutes when she heard footsteps in the corridor.

Reyna appeared in the doorway and stopped when she saw Charlie, looking slightly surprised. Charlie noted that she didn't look as though she'd been doing rounds. Her hair was loose and slightly disheveled, as though she'd been walking around the ship for quite a long time.

"Charlie?" Reyna said softly.

"Captain," Charlie replied.

"Are you alright?"

Charlie managed a nod. "And you?"

"Couldn't sleep."

Charlie only nodded again. "Me too."

Reyna moved to the counter and took a seat at a stool next to Charlie. She could feel Reyna settling beside her.

"Sometimes, quiet spaces like this are the only places where I can come and just let my thoughts... out," Reyna said, breaking the silence.

Charlie looked over at her, but Reyna was looking straight ahead, her hands folded on the counter.

"I know what you mean," Charlie responded.

Reyna looked over at Charlie, holding her gaze. "You do?"

Charlie nodded again. "Sometimes, it gets so loud in here," Charlie said, pointing at her head. "I just want to find somewhere, like this actually, where those thoughts can run, sometimes maybe more than I'd like. But, eventually, they run themselves tired, enough that they just... fade away."

Reyna nodded gently. "That happens for me as well." She paused then, her gaze falling to her hands. "But sometimes I try to take the thoughts I don't want to dwell on and just let them run their course to find their way out. Completely."

Charlie's brows pinched together. "How does that work exactly?"

Reyna returned to looking straight ahead. "It's almost watching them in my peripheral vision, if that makes sense."

"Like watching from the sidelines?" Charlie asked.

"Kind of like that, yeah. If I don't dwell, don't focus, don't go tunnel-vision on them, most of the time they can run through my mind and leave me be, never to return." Reyna got quiet again. "But sometimes, they don't allow me that luxury."

Charlie watched Reyna, noticing how her eyes had a heaviness to them that Charlie couldn't understand.

"Anything I should be on the lookout for?" Charlie asked with a smirk.

Reyna raised her gaze to Charlie, a small smile appearing before she spoke. "Well, as captain, occasionally there are... moments... where I have thoughts about certain, let's say, insubordinates, that I'd rather not linger on for the pure reason that I want no temptation to act on them."

Charlie raised a single eyebrow. "Am I a subordinate?"

"Technically? Yes, but only because you're serving on the ship while we travel to get you home."

"So,notme in this case, then."

Reyna chucked. "No, not inthiscase."

"Oh well then now you have to elaborate on these insubordinates and your non-actions," Charlie said.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Reyna asked with a smirk.

"Nope," Charlie replied, wearing her best shit-eating grin.

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Well, I just mean that... sometimes, I can react."