STRESS—THE UGLY six letter word that Maia seemed to know much better than anyone. She knew being an astronaut had its fair share of stressful occurrences, but most of it was normally temporary.

For Maia, however, it appeared as if her stress had come to grow permanent. Since learning of Mark's status on Mars, and since picking up the supply probe during their very brief stop at Earth, Maia's stress level had spiked tremendously. She wasn't sure why that was; all she knew was that she had never felt so horrible in her life, and she had been working her ass off to keep the fact of it from the rest of her crew-mates. There was a numerous amount of assignments that needed to be completed in order to keep the Hermes functioning properly throughout the duration of the mission, and Maia couldn't afford to allow her stress to distract her.

Maia had several theories as to why she was so stressed out. One of those theories had everything to do with Mark. She was terrified—absolutely terrified that their trip back to Mars would be done in vain. She'd been informed multiple times that Mark had all of the essentials needed to survive until the Ares III crew arrived back at Mars, but Maia couldn't help but be a bit pessimistic. There were so many things that could potentially go wrong—so many things that could take Mark away from her again. She didn't want to wake up one day to the news that Mark had perished, especially knowing it wouldn't be a mistake that go around. She just hoped she wouldn't have to deal with that pain again. The mere thought of it happening made Maia want to jump out of an airlock without a suit on.

Other factors Maia believed contributed to her stress were the assignments she needed to complete. It was her job to make sure the mechanisms of the Hermes remained in order, considering the fact that the spacecraft was functioning far past what it was intended. After every mission, all of the systematic functions of the Hermes were usually updated or replaced, but considering their mission was being prolonged an additional 533 days, it was nearly impossible to tend to the systems the way NASA would after an Ares mission had concluded. Maia was the system engineer, and with Mark gone she also held the title of mechanical engineer. This meant she had a lot more to do in her department than the rest of her crew-mates.

Maia continued twisting the screwdriver she held in her hand. Her focus was on nothing else but the contraption in front of her, though she wished that weren't the case. She'd been on her way to the gym for a workout session when Commander Lewis had stopped her and informed her that Martinez had once again broken the coffee machine. Maia was less than pleased with the fact of it. She'd finished an entire day worth of Hermes system checkups and updates, only now she was being forced to deal with yet another one of Martinez's very idiotic slip ups. She was definitely banning him from ever using the coffee machine again.

Maia shifted in her seat, sending a very dull pain shooting through her upper abdomen. Her face contorted slightly, though she didn't linger on the pain too long. She had been dealing with it for the past several weeks, along with quite a few throbbing headaches, but she figured it was just because of the stress. She figured everything going on with her and around her was because of the stress. It would explain quite a lot to her if that were the case.

About five minutes later, Maia had finally finished her work on the coffee machine. She sat the machine upright and began tinkering with it. NASA was very specific about the technology their astronauts used, so just about everything on board the Hermes required a password of sorts from the Ares crew members. It was very convenient, especially when it came to food and drinks. If the Ares crew members didn't have to manually enter their meal into a log, it was done electronically, not only for NASA's knowledge, but for Beck's as well. As the crew medical officer, it was Beck's job to keep track of his crew-mates's health, and the electronic logs helped him do just that. There was just one log he wouldn't be receiving anymore, and that was Martinez's caffeine intake log.

It hadn't taken long for Maia to hack her way into the system at all, and once she had done so, she changed Martinez's password, though she had set it up to where that particular password could only be used on the coffee machine. Martinez could use the password he currently had anywhere else—anywhere else but the coffee machine. She couldn't risk him breaking it anymore.

"Let's see you try to break it again, Martinez," Maia muttered to herself.

After she was finished tinkering with the coffee machine, Maia stood up, once again ignoring the slight pain in her abdomen. She let out a shaky breath and ran a hand through her hair before heading out of the rec-room. She hoped her workout could at least relieve her of some of her pain, if not all of it. It wasn't too severe, but it was uncomfortable and slightly annoying.

Soon she arrived at the gym. She slid down the ladder and hopped to the floor. She could hear the sound of the treadmill running, and turning around revealed that she wasn't the only one present inside the gym. Johanssen was present as well, and from what Maia could make of her appearance, she'd been present for quite some time. That didn't really surprise her, though. Beck was always after Johanssen to keep up with herself given her particular poor diet. Maia had been present for at least two of those scoldings, ad she wouldn't lie and say she hadn't believed it to be absolutely hilarious. It was all fun and games with Chris Beck until he became Doctor Chris Beck.

"Someone's working hard," Maia chuckled as she strolled over to the cooler at the very front of the room. She pulled out a water bottle and turned to look at Johanssen, who had a hint of a smirk pulling at the corner of her lips.

"As always, Watney," Johanssen replied breathlessly. "Why do you look more tired than usual?"

Maia shrugged and took a sip from her water bottle. "I guess I've been a bit too busy lately."

Johanssen only nodded in response to her claim and glanced over at the treadmill at the opposite end of the room. "Why don't you hop on that other treadmill over there and work hard with me? I have another two miles before I'm finished."

Maia's face contorted in slight disconcert at the sound of her words. "Let me guess, Beck really got you in trouble this time?" She walked over to the treadmill and hopped on, punching in her password as she waited for Johanssen to answer her.

"You have no idea," Johanssen grumbled.

Maia only chuckled and began running, her pace growing faster as the treadmill began to increase in speed. Neither one of the women spoke to one another as they continued their workout.

Fifteen minutes later, Maia began to feel strangely fatigued and faint. She figured her workout would've made her feel much better than she had been feeling, just as it normally did, but in actuality it only made her feel worse, and that was something Maia couldn't seem to understand. She tried to shake off the feeling, but it was almost impossible, as she was met with a new one—a painful one.

Maia slammed her hand down onto the treadmill panel to stop the machine, and she stepped off and onto the floor, her brows furrowing in confusion as she tried to work out what was currently happening with her. There weren't many thoughts that could make their way into her mind before a burning pain shot through her abdomen. She clutched her stomach tightly and practically collapsed to the floor, earning Johanssen's attention immediately. Johanssen stopped her treadmill the moment she noticed Maia was in trouble and ran over to her, slight fear in her brown eyes at the thought of something being wrong with her best friend.

"Maia, what's wrong?" Johanssen questioned Maia frantically.

Maia could only shake her head in response, and she grabbed Johanssen's arm tightly with her free hand. The pain was too much to allow Maia a verbal response, and the tears that flowed from her eyes only gave Johanssen a glimpse into just how intense that pain was.

"Oh, god," Maia managed to get out. She felt like her insides were being devoured by a pain she had never once known before in her life.

Johanssen let out a shaky breath and got up from her spot on the floor, running over to the comm-connector to see if she could reach out to any one of crew-mates, preferably Beck.

"Beck, are you there? Is anyone there? I have an emergency," Johanssen spoke frantically into the speaker. She glanced over at Maia to see her now laying on the ground clutching her abdomen in a death grip. The tears flowed faster down her pale face, and her sobs had grown louder. She didn't know what was wrong with her best friend, but she knew whatever it was scared her to death.

"What's going on?" Beck's deep and worrisome voice responded.

Johanssen let out a sigh and frowned. "It's Maia. I don't know what's happening with her, but I know that she's in a lot of pain. She's laying on the floor holding her stomach in a death grip."

"Where are you?"

"The gym."

"Copy that."

The line disconnected. Johanssen ran back over to Maia and knelt down in front of her. She placed a comforting hand onto her best friend's arm, but was unsure about what else to do. She was afraid to hurt her even more than she appeared to already be.

"Maia, you're going to be okay," Johanssen assured her. "Beck's coming to take care of you."

Maia simply whimpered in response and clutched her stomach harder. It seemed as if the pain only grew stronger as the time passed. She almost wanted to rip out her insides.

Several moments later, Beck entered the gym. Johanssen turned back to look at him, and the moment he met her eyes he ran over, kneeling down beside her in front of Maia. He frowned the moment he saw her. Just the simple fact of knowing she was in pain upset him.

"What happened?" Beck asked Johanssen as he began tending to Maia.

Johanssen shrugged and watched him. "We were working out and she just stopped and collapsed. I have no idea what's wrong with her. I've never seen her like this before."

"Neither have I," Beck muttered. "Where does it hurt, Maia?"

Maia only clutched her stomach tighter. Beck noticed the gesture and looked to her abdomen, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he himself tried to figure out what could be wrong with her.

"Please tell me that you've been using protection and everything I'm witnessing right now isn't her having a miscarriage," Johanssen breathed out. She was trying to lighten the mood to some extent, but it didn't exactly work out for her. If anything, her words only annoyed Beck.

Beck sent a glare in Johanssen's direction and picked Maia up off of the floor, being careful not to agitate her current ailment further. He wasn't sure what was wrong with Maia. All he was sure of was that she was in pain, and seeing the love of his life in pain was the last thing he wanted to see. It was his obligation to take away that pain, however, and it was exactly what he was going to do.