Page 210 of Every Almost

Continuing to scroll, Charlie found another. "Now, see, this one's Katie. But really, anything that reminds me of her ends up in this list." A beat passed between them, soft, before Charlie continued to scroll.

"What about this one?" Orion asked, pointing at a new song that caught his eye.

"Well, this one is from the galley one afternoon. There were a bunch of us at a table. Tavi, Maren, Kess, Selowen. We just gathered together and stayed after we were all done eating. Reyna eventually sat down with us too, and we all just ended up talking for an hour, maybe more." Charlie smiled with a shrug. "It was a good afternoon. This was the song for it."

"I'm glad to hear you've been talking with the crew more, even the Captain."

"The crew has been incredible in welcoming me. Many of them are friends now, dear friends."

"That makes me happy to hear," Orion said.

Charlie scrolled to the very end of the list. "This one I put on the other night and even placed it on repeat. I just felt this need to hear it over and over again." Charlie stopped, a wrinkle in brow developing. "Now that I think about it, it was after realizing the Observation Room was needed for me to sleep," she said with a laugh, her brow smoothing.

"You need the Observation Room to sleep?" Orion asked.

Charlie huffed a laugh. "Well, not exactly. I mean, it's silly actually. As I said earlier, I'd walked the ship often when Icouldn't sleep. But to be honest, it happened more than I'd like. Still does, even. In the beginning, I ended up at the atrium most nights, doing what I said and watching the Aetherfin drift around their sphere."

"They are peaceful to watch. I'll say I've even watched them for a time, not knowing how long I've been there until I break away," Orion stated. Charlie nodded.

"That's how it was. But one night, a while back, I decided to keep walking. I ended up going further than I ever had and found a different room I didn't even know was there."

"The Observation Room."

"The Observation Room, with its big windows full of nothing but stars. It had the benches and the railing to oversee the whole of space just outside those massive windows." She turned the datapad slowly in her hands to turn it towards Orion. "That first night, Reyna was already there, sitting in the dark, almost like she'd been doing it for years." A small pause. "I found out that it turns out, she had."

"And you stayed," Orion stated softly.

"I stayed. She'd told me once, a while before that, that if I ever found her in some quiet corner of the ship, I shouldn't feel the need to run away. That she didn't mind the company." Charlie smiled at the datapad. "So I didn't. Run away, I mean. I just... sat down on the other end of the bench. We watched the stars a while, and I finally felt like I could breathe." She scrolled, not really looking. "Then I did it again the next night. And the next. It kind of became a thing. Three in the morning, that bench, not saying much." A shrug. "Now I sleep better after. So, that's the room. And I guess that's this song."

Orion studied her for a moment while Charlie continued to scroll through her datapad.

"I'm glad you found the room, and that you have a song for it. For the words."

Charlie did look up now, her eyes on his. "It's the right song."

"I think it is." Orion made a note, not asking anything further.

Charlie kept scrolling. She told Orion about a song for a nebula that drifted past a viewport while she was up too late, but she didn't say if it was in the Observation Room. She told him about a song that came on as she walked to Engineering where someone fell into step beside her, but she didn't say who. She gave Orion the songs along with the reason for each one.

Orion didn't push. But then, he rarely did. Instead, he made his notes, and let the quiet be comfortable, and asked her to play the next one, and Charlie, who had come in braced for another conversation about the thing everyone suddenly knew, found she wasn't being asked to talk about it at all. She was just being kept company. Somewhere in the second song, her shoulders came down for the first time all day.

"I'd like to formally add these to the archive," Orion said, when the list had wound down. "Human music is poorly represented in our records. It should not be."

"Yeah." Charlie looked back down at the datapad. "I'd like that, actually. Feel free."

Orion nodded. He looked at the list one more time and set it a little apart from his other work, the way he handled everything he meant to keep close, interested and special.

That night,as discussed, Charlie went back to the Observation Room.

She’d walked the path enough times now that her feet knew how to get there. She knew to go past the library, past Engineering, past the storage bays with the flickering seam Tavikept meaning to fix. It should have felt ordinary, and the truth was, most nights it did.

But tonight it didn’t. Tonight was different.

Last night, Charlie had come apart in this room. Last night, Reyna had caught her, and Charlie had said things she’d never said to anyone. Granted, last night was after unprecedented events for her, and probably Reyna as well. But it wasn’t just Charlie’s news.

Last night, Charlie had called her Rey.

Charlie knew she wouldn’t be able to make that less important than it felt. Not something like that.