Page 205 of Every Almost

Reyna stared at Charlie blankly. She noticed her voice was still rough, but something threaded through it now. Warmth.

As Reyna stared at her, Charlie looked back, exhausted and pale and somehow still Charlie enough to have said it.

A laugh slipped out of Reyna before she could stop it. Not big, just one breath of sound, startled loose from somewhere too close to the ache. Reyna watched as Charlie's eyes changed when she heard it, and the laugh softened into silence.

Reyna realized that Jere and Elena would have exchanged one of their looks across the table in a moment like this, entirely insufferable. Suddenly, their absence pressed in, but not as sharply as it had in the past. And Reyna realized it was because Charlie was still there.

"Jere used it like it belonged to him," Reyna said softly, letting the emotion slip back in, at least a little. "Elena too, but usually only when she wanted me to stop arguing with her."

"Did it work?"

Reyna scoffed. "Almost never."

Charlie's smirk suddenly spread across her face for the first time Reyna had seen since the news of her aging was given. "So," she began, the teasing in her voice returning as well. "If I walkinto your office tomorrow and say, 'Rey, I need authorization to recalibrate the secondary coolant routing because Cael has been personally victimizing the concept of efficiency,' I could possibly, maybe have a chance?"

"Possibly, with some discussion," Reyna replied with a soft laugh again.

"Yeah," Charlie said, the sound small and rough, almost a laugh herself. "I thought so."

The quiet came seeped back into their bubble slowly. Charlie looked down at her hands while Reyna looked at the place where Charlie's shoulder still touched hers.

"But you can," Reyna said quietly.

Charlie looked up. "I can what?"

"Call me Rey."

Charlie's face changed before she could hide it. Her eyes looked down at her bracelet before returning and focusing fully on Reyna. "Okay," she said gently, the word careful. "Rey," said softer, almost fragile.

Reyna heard the name in Charlie's voice, and something in her chest eased. in a way Reyna hadn’t expected. Somehow, hearing it now in Charlie's voice, careful and soft, was the first time the name had soothed her since Jere and Elena.

The ship'sartificial dawn began without ceremony, a warm line of light creeping under the door. The stars outside stayed unchanged, completely indifferent to the Emberkind's cycle schedules. But inside the ship the systems would begin to shift from night to morning, and somewhere several decks away, the zero-shift crew would begin waking, taking their places.

Charlie noticed it first. Her shoulder lifted from Reyna's by the smallest measure, suddenly remembering its existence after a long time holding still. "Maybe I should go," she said, the words thin and lacking.

"Okay," Reyna said, though the answer felt strange in her mouth.

Charlie nodded but didn't make any move to stand. So, neither did Reyna.

For several seconds they sat with the word between them, agreed to in theory yet ignored in execution. Then Charlie drew a breath and pushed herself up. Reyna rose with her and knew the moment she did that it had been too quick to pass for courtesy. But the truth was that if Charlie caught it, she let it go. She only stood facing the viewport, the bracelet reflecting bright against her wrist in the softening light of the ship's dawn.

Suddenly, Reyna realized the room looked different to her now. It contained the same benches and the same wide curve of glass overlooking those same beautiful stars. But now Charlie had come apart here, she'd said Katie's name here.

Charlie had called her Rey here.

The room would hold these memories, Reyna knew, though she had no evidence for it. But she knew, in every future occurrence where she'd walked through the door, the memories would come rushing back.

She watched as Charlie suddenly turned toward the door and took two steps toward it. But then she stopped, looking back to where Reyna stood.

"Will you…" She began, and the hesitation in Charlie's voice made Reyna hold her breath. Charlie Wickett, who had argued with her Chief Engineer, had told her crew they had been wrong about the ship's efficiency, and had questioned Coalition protocol as an outsider from a non-contact planet, suddenlyseemed so unsure how to ask one question. So Reyna gave her the silence, and patience, to find the words.

"Will you... will you be here tonight?" Then Charlie shook her head. "Or, I guess... tomorrow morning?"

It was a small question, but Reyna heard Charlie ask it like it wasn't. She wasn't asking about a schedule.

"Yes," Reyna said almost immediately, and she watched as Charlie's shoulders came down, just slightly. "I'll be here."

Something in Charlie's face settled, and this time Reyna didn't care that she felt it in her chest. "Okay," she said.