Every time I looked across at Cas, I giggled. He was frowning, his gaze fixed on Gem.

“That was fun. You did seem like you had fun,” she said, an innocent smile plastered on her face.

“Great. It was wonderful. Truly the best experience of my life,” he said flatly, his words thick with sarcasm.

“Oh, I’m so glad I could enrich your life like that. We should go on again. Aries, what do you think?”

Gem turned to me, her wet, caramel-coloured hair was slicked back from her face and dripped down her back.

“Mmm… I don’t know…” I hesitated.

“No! I’m not going on again! You can either go on alone, wait for Aries to feel better or drag Cory on with you!”

Gem turned to Cory, her eyes hopeful.

“I love you, Gem, and you know I’d do almost anything for you but I am not going on that… thing.”

Her shoulders slumped at his words and she turned sadly towards me.

“Fine. I guess I’ll just have to wait until you’re cleared.”

I laughed and threw my arm around her shoulders.

“Come on, take me to the spa. Cory said I could go in the water as long as it’s slow-moving and I’m unlikely to be hit by someone so… hopefully we should be fine?”

Gem laughed and wrapped her arm around me, leading me towards the glass wall on the far side of the room, away from the loud noise coming from the arcade and the slides.

“Wait, do you two want a drink or a snack or anything?” Cas asked, gesturing towards the beach cabana.

“Sure! Surprise me?” I asked with a shrug.

Gem scanned the menu.

“Can you get me some chips and some kind of drink?”

“Of course! Meet y’all in there!”

We turned and strolled towards the quiet spa again.

“Cas cannot keep his eyes off you,” Gem muttered quietly, a huge grin on her face.

I elbowed her in the side.

“They can definitely still hear you,” I hissed, glancing back.

“They can’t! They’re out of reach. Plus the shaved ice machine is so loud there, they won’t be able to hear a thing over it. So… what happened? After we were taken?” Gem asked.

I suppressed a sigh. The thought of those seemingly endless days waiting for what I thought was certain death sent a chill through my body.

“Nothing. I literally did nothing but write and then we just waited.”

Gem’s face screwed up.

“You didn’t like… hook up with him or anything?”

I forced myself to let out a laugh, focusing on the feeling of the sand beneath my feet to stay grounded.

“No! Imminent death isn’t exactly the best aphrodisiac.”

Gem pulled the glass door of the spa open for me and goosebumps rose on my skin as the cold air brushed my skin.

“I guess not. I don’t know, if it was just Cory and me left and I thought we were going to die, I’d probably want to be with him. At least once.”

I shrugged looking around the spotless light blue walled room. A smattering of people reclined in fake wooden lounge chairs covered with pastel coloured cushions around a mostly empty pool. The sharp yet comforting smell of chlorine filled the air along with the hushed whisper of bubbles from the jacuzzi.

“It didn’t feel right,” I said quietly, my mind stuck on the nights we spent together, holding each other.

Gem lay back with a sigh.

“That’s fair, I guess.”

I bit my lip and glanced through the windows, checking how far away the boys were. They were approaching the doors now, they probably couldn’t hear us still.

“There was one thing,” I said quickly.

Gem rolled her head towards me and opened one eye lazily.

“I told Cas I love him and he said it back,” the words poured out of my mouth in a rush.

She gaped at me for a moment as she processed what I said before almost shouting, “What?”

My cheeks burnt as several people looked around at us.

Is everything okay? Cory asked as they came into the spa, clearly having heard Gem’s outburst.

Yes, fine, I thought hastily, not wanting to meet Cas’ eyes.

You sure? What happened? he asked as the people surrounding us gradually went back to their relaxation.

Nothing, Gem and I answered at the same time.

I tried so hard to look normal as I took the bottle and bowl of crispy looking chips from Cas.

“Thanks,” I said with an awkward smile.

He dropped onto the end of the recliner and stole a chip, grinning cheekily at me.

“You’re welcome. So, what was Gem shouting about?”

I almost choked on my mouthful and took a gulp of my drink to clear the half-chewed chip from my throat. My tongue tingled as an unexpected flavour filled my mouth. I stared at the bottle in surprise.

“Wait, you can get n’hitel here?”

Cas grinned and took a long savouring swing.

“Oh yeah. So, it turned out that n’hitel is made exclusively on one of the planets that has a… rocky history with the Council so it wasn’t actually that the drink was illegal or banned all the time. The Council just kept trying to shut down production every time the planet fell out of favour with them but they wouldn’t share the recipe so we couldn’t get it. Apparently, every so often the Council would send out the IA to destroy supplies from restaurants and bars though. I’m not all that surprised.”

I wasn’t either. It seemed completely fitting that the Council would abuse their power like that. They probably thought they were harming the planet by doing that but all they were doing was driving demand up.

“That’s wild but it makes sense. The Council are a bunch of assholes.”

A loud whisper from across the pool stole my attention and I tried to ignore the women who were openly pointing at us.

“So, tell me about the ship? The arcade and climbing wall look cool. Are there any other fun things?” I asked.

Gem had been lightly glaring at the woman but she looked back at me when I spoke.

“Oh, yeah! The gym is super cool and they have space for Zero-G games but they’re booked out way in advance so we’ll need to book some soon. Mmm… what else? Oh! There’s a garden a couple of decks down, that’s pretty cool. It’s kinda peaceful, I’ve not seen maybe people there yet… Urm, what else?” Gem looked around at the boys.

“There’s a theatre,” Cas added.

“Oh, duh! It looks super cool, real old school vibe! They play Council approved shows and non-approved ones! We need to check it out some time!”

I nodded. “That sounds pretty cool.”

“I can’t wait to try it!”

Her enthusiasm brought a smile to my face. It felt like nothing had changed. If I let myself, I could almost believe that we were on a pleasure ship somewhere out in the galaxy. We were eating chips and drinking n’hitel. Relaxing. We’d probably go swimming after then maybe I’d fall asleep in the quiet, tranquil room where I didn’t need to worry about anything. I wanted to believe that we were safe. That we were protected and had nothing to worry about but my mind kept going back to Peggy. It felt so wrong that we could be here whilst she was stuck with the Council, probably being tortured.

I shook my head slightly to get rid of that thought and looked around at my crew. Cas and Cory were talking about the latest movie playing in the theatre but Gem was staring down at the bowl in between her knees. Her eyes seemed distant and her hands were trembling slightly.

“So, tell me about the rest of the ship. What are the training rooms like? Have you seen the classrooms yet? Or like, the armoury?”

Gem blinked hard and looked up at me, her face blank for a second before a forced smile appeared.

“The rooms look pretty similar to the ones on our base, to be honest but the armoury is awesome! They have so many cool weapons. We’ll need to show you later! We should have gone earlier actually, it’s right by the garage but they have another littler one by the war room!”

Her voice grew more enthusiastic as she spoke.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes! Urgh, the weapons are so cool! I can’t wait to try them! Especially that big one, it’s got like two barrels and you have to wear it over your shoulders! It’s so awesome.”

“Have you not tried out any of them yet?” I asked, pushing the bowl with the last chip in it towards Cas.

He took it, tore it in half and dropped the bigger half back in the bowl before pushing it back towards me. I ate it, a small smile playing on my lips.

“No! Doctor’s orders.” She rolled her eyes dramatically and nudged Cory. “Apparently, I was at risk of causing further damage before. But I’m cleared now!”

My eyebrows drew together at her words.

“Wait, I thought they picked up you and Cory with no issue?”

She chewed her lip before she spoke.

“Everything’s fine now but… apparently, I was meant to take some of the medication for longer after my transplant but they didn’t give it to me when we were in prison and they conveniently left it out of the report so no one knew…”

Cory’s face tightened noticeably.

“But, I’m fine now! I just needed some more medicine and now everything is okay!”

Really? I asked, hating myself for not thinking to check.

I’d just assumed that Gem was fine. I didn’t know anyone with an artificial kidney or liver, I’d just thought once she had the surgery she was okay.

Really. I promise.

Cory still seemed upset but it seemed more directed at himself. I had a feeling he too was beating himself up for not realising sooner.

“Oh! You should see our rooms! They’re so nice!” Gem burst suddenly.

“Rooms plural?” I asked.

I’d just assumed that we’d be given only one room. We were a crew, after all. We were used to bunking together.

“Oh, yeah. We got two.” Gem’s tone was salacious but I wasn’t sure why.

Caution prickled inside me. Normally, when she used that tone, she was about to say something inappropriate or dirty.

“How come?” I sounded resigned, even to my own ears.

I wanted the answer but I wanted it from someone other than Gem and her lewd mind.

“One for you and Cas and one for me and Cory,” She winked at me and glanced pointedly at Cas.

My cheeks flushed as I glanced unsurely at Cas.

“It’s not that. It was meant to be one room for you, her and Peg when we get her back and one for me and Cory. Just in case someone wants privacy or something.”

“Oh, I’m sure privacy would be nice. Right, Arie?” She raised her eyebrows at me and grinned wickedly.

I dropped my head back against the lounger, knowing my cheeks were bright red.

I hate you.

I love you too, Gem thought back with a cackle.