Page 251 of Every Almost

Charlie turned away from Reyna to watch the party, because looking at her was beginning to hurt.

They stood there a while before Reyna changed the subject.

"So, I have some news for you."

"Oh?" Charlie asked.

"The Engineering department is running better than it has run in my entire command, all since your appointment with Tavi and Maren," Reyna said.

Charlie laughed. "Come on."

"I'm serious, Charlie," Reyna said, turning to face her again.

Charlie couldn't look away.

"Thirteen years I have run this ship, including that department. Under Rask, it functioned. But with you three..." Reyna trailed off. "It's all in the efficiency reports. They are the best numbers I have ever put in front of a Fleet Admiral, and Torvax has checked them twice because he assumed there was an error."

"Oh, there's no error," Charlie insisted. "Maren doesn't make errors."

"There it is," Reyna said, her gaze filled with awe.

"There what is?" Charlie asked.

"You do that every time," Reyna said softly. "I hand you an achievement, or dare I say a compliment, and you attribute it to someone else."

"Because it'stheirs," Charlie said, hearing her own voice come up, not bothering to pull it back. "Reyna, I'm serious," she said as she watched Reyna raise a single eyebrow. "Listen, Tavifeelssystems like no one I've ever worked with. That man knows a manifold's going bad two days before the sensors evennotice a drop in efficacy." Charlie began to talk with her hands. "And Maren? Jesus, she has never forgotten one single thing in her life, and yes, I know that's a Noethan thing, but it means I've got a walking security camera overlooking my department that can recall everything we've ever learned and completed and achieved." Charlie stared at Reyna. "I'm good. I'll even go so far as to say I'mreallygood. But, Reyna, if you pulled either one of them out of that bay, the whole thing would come down inside a month. I'm not good without them."

"And if I pulled you out?" Reyna asked, her voice cracking.

Charlie stopped, holding Reyna's gaze, who looked back at Charlie, waiting with such anticipation for Charlie's answer.

"It would be the same thing," Charlie whispered. "That's my whole point." Charlie held up three fingers, and then, because her hands always got involved when spoke about something that mattered, she brought them together. "A tripod; three legs. You can put weight on it, you can set it on ground that isn't anywhere close to level, and it still holds. That's the whole design." She dropped her hand. "Take one leg off a tripod and it isn't something less. It just doesn't work anymore."

She was still going when Reyna's face changed.

It was there and gone, quick, and then Reyna wasn't looking at her anymore.

Recognition dawned on Charlie almost immediately. "Just like Jere and Elena were for you," Charlie said softly.

Reyna looked up into Charlie's face, lingering there before nodding.

"Yes," she said. "Three legs, like you said. Elena was the one who decided where we were going, Jere made it worth going, and I was the one in the middle that kept the two of them from flying apart." Her voice didn't change at all when she said it. "It held on any ground you put it on."

Charlie smiled at Reyna's echoing back her own words.

"A tripod," Charlie muttered.

"A tripod," Reyna repeated.

Charlie looked into Reyna's gaze and, for the first time, truly saw her struggle and how it must have felt for all the years she worked through it.

"And then it was one," Charlie said.

Reyna didn't answer.

"You've been running this ship on one leg for thirteen years," Charlie said, quieter.

"Yeah," Reyna said. "I have."