I smile for the first time in I don't know how long. It feels so good, but then that stupid voice in the back of my head speaks up. I can't ignore the suspicions that it brings up. "Rafe, why are they doing this now? What are they trying to accomplish?"

Rafe looks down not able to meet my eyes and I'm sure that he's either not going to answer my question or lie to me. So I am therefor surprised when he looks back up and is a bit angry and it comes out with his answer.

"They want you to trust them." His mouth thins down in anger. I can't tell if it is anger at himself, me or those in charge though.

"They are wanting your trust after doing everything to lose it. I'm sorry Maha, I tried hard to get them to treat you better but it seemed the more I told them what to do the less they did it. It's only because you started dying that they started listening to you. As to why they are so hungry for your trust? That is something a lowly Lt doesn't need to know. I'm sorry if that doesn't answer your question. If it doesn't then be more specific and I'll do my best to answer."

I am shocked by his honest answer. I know that they wouldn't have wanted him to divulge some of the things that he did. I find myself relaxing in ways that I couldn't before. So I was dying and that's why they started listening to the Lt.

"Are you here because you are being ordered to be here?" I demand to know. I'm afraid of this answer though.

"Yes and no. I am here because I am ordered here. But not in the way that you mean Maha. If I hadn't been ordered here then I'd have other duties. But I want to be here, at least as long as it doesn't hurt you. I only stayed away before because you hated me, I had hurt you so bad. I'm still not sure why you have forgiven me even if it is only a small bit."

His words bring a warmth inside of me that I hadn't realized was cold before. I start feeling dizzy and see spots of black dance in front of me.

l start to panic, "Something's wrong Rafe." Then the room goes black and I don't know what happens next.

She fainted. I hadn't done anything this time and she was actually smiling at me, but then she said that something is wrong and she faints. She was sitting already but I catch her before she hits her head again on the floor. 

I pick her up and carry her back to the infirmary. I call out to the doctor and have a hard time covering my panic. She shouldn't have passed out like she did.

"What did you do Lt?" The doctor demands taking her from my arms and setting her on the exam table in front of him.

"Nothing Doctor. We were talking while she was eating and she was even smiling at me. Then all of a sudden she says something was wrong and she passed out."

She doesn't regain consciousness. They had drawn blood and as the results come back there is shocked murmuring.

My Commander comes in and the doctor's have a quick conference with her while I never leave Maha's side.

"Lt. I need you to come with me." I've never heard my Commander's voice so angry. I look at her about to protest but my protest dies as soon as I see her face. Something is wrong, very wrong and I think a whole lot of bad is about to come down on me.

She takes me not to her office like I had expected but to the brig's interrogation room. If I'm being brought here than the chances of me ever being with Maha again are all but nil. 

"Sit down Lt." The Commander says and I numbly sit down.

"You know why we are here?" The Commander says coldly.

"My guess is it has something to do with Maha. But what even happened I don't know."

"She was poisoned Lt. Very likely by the food you gave her for breakfast." At the commander's words my world goes dark. I don't fall but I no longer see and her voice comes from a long distance away. Breathing becomes difficult and my body goes into spasms. I know nothing more than intense pain. She thinks I'm responsible for poisoning Maha. That was my last thought before oblivion finally overtakes me.

I watch as the Lt. goes into a fit. I'm shocked, of all my people I thought he'd be the one to protect Maha the most, with his life if necessary. But the evidence points to him as being the one to poison her.

His fit also shocks me. It isn't poison, but I can't let him die. I need to know why he tried to kill Maha. Even if she lives she won't trust anyone, not if Rafe tried to kill her. It just doesn't make sense. Rafe has been her champion all along, from the very moment he brought her on board. I was beginning to think he loved her the way he was so protective of her.

It doesn't take long for the medic team to arrive. But it does take long for them to stabilize him. They weren't even sure that they could. Finally the doctor comes over to talk to me.

"So what happened?" The doctor asks, well more as carefully demands. I'm the only one that ranks him on this ship.

"I was interrogating him about Maha when he suddenly spaces out then starts spasming." I shrug I had never seen anything like it.

The doctor runs a hand over his tired face. "Has he formed a deep attachment to Maha?"

"I thought so, but then he's the main suspect in her poisoning. What's going on doctor?"

"We are born with a gene that rarely presents itself because quite frankly we don't care enough for it to activate. But when we care about someone deeply, and I mean very deeply, it activates. Lt Rafe Depac didn't poison Maha, Commander. Just the idea of hurting her nearly killed him. That coupled with the fact that he took the poisoned food to her, he may not live.

"You should look to anyone that has access to her food before the Lt. That pretty much means the entire kitchen staff."

His words both stun me and bring me a great deal of relief. I hadn't wanted to think bad of the Lt. I'm glad he's been vindicated. "When will I be able to talk to him?"

The doctor shrugs, "He's gone into a coma. He might never come out of it and if he does his body might just start the spasms all over again. There's every chance that he will die, Commander. So whoever tried to kill Maha, might just kill them both."

His words stun me as he walks away.

"Where's Rafe?" I'm scared, I wake up back in the infirmary but Rafe isn't with me. I need Rafe.

The nurse comes over with a sad look in her eyes, "The Lt. is in ICU. He's in a coma, Maha. We don't know when or even if he'll wake up." At her words I struggle to sit up.

"Take me to him! I need to see him." I'm panicking I know, but I need to be with him. I don't trust anyone here other than him. He's not here I need to be where he is.

"Calm down Maha. If you calm down I'll allow you to visit the Lt." It isn't the nurse that says that, it's someone else, a man. I look over and see that it's the doctor. I fight the sneer that wants to place itself on my face.

The doctor nods and the nurse brings over a wheelchair. I struggle but get myself up and into the chair. The nurse makes sure that I'm properly settled then takes me to another part of the infirmary.

I see Rafe. He looks so white, barely alive. "What did you do to him?" I whisper aghast at what I see before me.

"You had been poisoned Maha, he was the main suspect. All I did was start questioning him and he went into fits. I got him to the infirmary as fast as possible." I look over at the woman also looking at the Lt. "But his body has gone into a coma."

"Rafe would never hurt me. Why would anyone think that would even be possible?" I ask angry and not a little disgusted.

"He's the one that had the most access to your food, which was the delivery system for the poison. He was the logical person to start with." The woman says sadly and I look at her with distaste.

"Yeah right. From the first he's tried to get me to eat, get me to speak protected me from those that treated me like an unwanted animal. He saved my life on more than one occasion and suddenly he wants to poison me? You people have a real problem with thinking don't you?" I'm angry, more angry than I think I've ever been and considering how angry I was not too long ago at all these people that really is saying a lot.

I have no rights to say what I say next, but if they truly want me to trust them they better do it. "Get out, get away from him Commander. Because if he dies I'm going to hold you and everyone on this ship responsible. I don't know what you want me for and right now I don't care."

Oh she didn't like that not one bit, but whatever they want me for must be something big because she leaves. 

I look at the medical staff still around me and they are all looking at me wide eyed as well. "The same goes for you all." They look down unable to meet my eyes. Not even the doctor assigned to his care.

I take myself into his room and although I was told earlier I wouldn't be permitted no one says a word to me. Damn, whatever they want me for must be big. I take Rafe's cold hand in mine. If the machine's hadn't of told me different I'd say he was already dead. I can't help the tears that fall.