It wasn’t hard to figure out where she’d been taken. The “proper high security place” Liz had mentioned. It was, however, harder to find out where it was. They had gone back to the hospital, where the police had already taken Nathaniel away, but Liz still wasn’t sure where the establishment would be. She had been told Beka was no longer her problem and that she’d been taken away but the people she’d spoken to had seemed reluctant to give her any further information as to her former patient’s whereabouts.
Rommie had tried to run another scan for Beka’s nanobots, but they had come back with nothing. They assumed she was still on the planet, but the high security hospital would be too protected for Rommie to pick up any readings.
Liz kept trying though, and after a few days they reluctantly gave her the name and the location of the hospital. As soon as they found out, the Andromeda crew set out as quickly as they could to get her out of there.
****
“We’re here to get someone,” Harper panted as soon as he reached the reception desk. The man behind it wrinkled his forehead as he looked at Harper with a perplexed expression. Dylan smiled apologetically and took over.
“We left Beka Valentine in the care of another hospital, we planned to take her back to our ship but she’s been taken here without us being asked first, or even told. We would like to pick her up now, if you please.” His tone was very polite, but held a dangerous undertone. The man nodded with a slight look of panic in his eyes.
“I’ll…I’ll go get the doctor, he mumbled and nearly ran out the back door. He returned a few moments later with a dark-haired woman in her mid-forties.
“Yes, I am Rebekah’s current doctor, how can I help you?” she asked in an indifferent voice.
“As I just explained to this fine gentleman,” Dylan said, overly politely, “Beka is not meant to be here, she was meant to be in another hospital, however, now we are taking her back to us.” The doctor’s expression did not change in the least.
“I see,” she stated coldly, “well, I’m afraid you can’t do that.”
“Who are you to tell us what we can and can’t do?” Harper exclaimed.
“I am her doctor,” she replied tonelessly.
“No kidding,” Dylan muttered under his breath. To her he said; “I am aware of that, but I am her captain and we are the closest thing to a family that she’s got. Now; I don’t see what she’s done to deserve to end up here. The only reason that she didn’t recover well before; and that she ran away, is because she was molested by a nurse there…”
“An extremely unfortunate event that we are deeply sorry for;” the doctor replied. “However, this would never happen in this establishment, we are extremely secure.”
“That’s not the point,” Dylan said, “why should she have to be punished with this prison-like care because of something that wasn’t her fault?”
“This is not punishment. This is care, the care she needs to get better.”
“May I? Beka is not a citizen under your law and therefore you have no right to keep her,” Rommie cut in. The doctor sighed.
“No,” she admitted, “technically if her next of kin,” she nodded to Dylan, “as her captain you would be eligible, decides to take her out of care and she agrees, we can’t keep her. But I would advice strongly against this; she…”
“That’s ok,” Dylan said, “it was a mistake to ever take her here. No offence to you, but…I think we’ve realised it’s better to take care of your own problems, rather than just casting them aside.” He looked at the rest of his crew. “Shall we?”
****
Harper could hardly wait for the guard to unlock the door. He rushed into the room to find Beka huddled up on a small, bunk-like bed in the middle of a very white room, walls soft, padded somehow. There were no windows and the room somehow looked sterile, so white it was almost blinding. She looked up as she saw them coming and a shadow of a smile touched her face, as well as uncertainty, some sort of hope.
“It’s ok Beka,” he said as he came up to her, “we’re taking you back, I promise. You won’t have to stay here anymore.” With a gasp, she threw her arms around him.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she mumbled into his shoulder as she hugged him harder. She then, suddenly, got up and moved quickly out of the room, pulling him with her. She walked as fast as she could until she was all the way out of the hospital and leaned against the wall, gasping.
“Was it that bad?” he asked anxiously? She looked up at him, confused, until it dawned on her what he meant.
“No,” she said, “I mean no, they didn’t do anything…bad. I just hated being cooped up like that, like I was a prisoner, like I’d done something wrong.”
“Well you’re not, and you haven’t. Don’t worry, you never have to go back here again. You’ll be fine.”
“It did do something good though,” she said suddenly.
“It did?”
“Yeah…I had a lot of time to think about…what you said, you know, at the cliff.”
“I was seeing Rommie for therapy, because I’m in love with you.”
”Oh?” he managed.
”I think…I love you too. I mean; I wasn’t sure before, because I kept trying to tell myself I was only mad cause you lied. And…well, I don’t think that was it. I was probably jealous as well, but I didn’t want to believe it myself as you were…I thought you were, with Rommie. Anyway…what I’m trying to say is; I think I’m in love with you…too.”
“Beka, I…” he squirmed and hesitated. Her face was an image of panic.
