BECK GNAWED ANXIOUSLY on his bottom lip. His fingers tapped quickly over the table top, and he fidgeted with the pen in his right hand. Every once and a while he would glance over at her sleeping figure in hopes that he would catch the fluttering of her eyes as she finally awoke, but each time he was met with disappointment. He knew exactly what was wrong with her, but that didn't make him feel better about the situation. If anything, it only slightly perturbed the flight surgeon. He figured she'd known something was wrong for weeks now, yet she hadn't informed him of a single thing, and that worried him more than he cared to admit. He scolded himself for not realizing something was wrong sooner.

As Beck thought back several weeks, he noted a certain change in her eyes, the color of her skin, and the way she carried herself around the ship. She was exhausted, that much he knew, but he wasn't aware of just how exhausted she was. He noted the times in which he would catch her facial expression contort to that of slight pain and discomfort, followed by a very subtle grab to her abdomen, but she had only ever passed it off as cramps. It was only now that he knew she had been lying. She was stressed, far more stressed than anyone else on the crew was aware of. Sure, Beck was more than aware of the stress the mission was causing her, but what he wasn't aware of was the extent in which that stress reached. At least not until now.

Maia had been fast asleep for the last four hours. After Beck had arrived in the medical wing with her, she had simply passed out due to the intense amount of pain she had been in. Afterwards, Beck gave her a bit of anesthetic to keep her asleep for an additional amount of time. She should've been awake, though, and that was something Beck worried about slightly. He wasn't sure if she was just being stubborn or if his diagnosis was much worse than he had originally thought it to be. The mere thought of it scared him.

Beck let out a breath as he very effortless scribbled across yet another one of Maia's medical logs. Aside from Johanssen, Beck had taken care of Maia the most, not only physically, but psychologically as well. He could remember receiving an email from Teddy Sanders telling him that he needed to keep a very close eye on Maia, as Teddy had been afraid of her mental deterioration due to Mark's death at the time. Maia wasn't aware that most of what he had done to take care of her had been because of a mere request, but Beck didn't care if she knew that or not. He would've done whatever it took to take care of her and make her happy regardless if he received an email from Teddy or not.

About five minutes later, Beck noticed Maia stirring where she lay on the mattress across the room. He got up from his seat and strolled over to her, his eyes softening slightly as they met her very tired green ones.

"Hey," he greeted her with a small smile on his face.

Maia rubbed at her eyes to further wake herself up. "Hi," she spoke quietly.

"How are you feeling?"

Maia only shrugged and shifted herself into a sitting position, wincing at the slight pain in her stomach. Beck quickly placed a hand onto her shoulder to halt her movements, much to her confusion.

"Careful," he told her.

Maia bit her lip and reached up to grab his hand. She squeezed it in her own and looked up at him with glistening green eyes. Beck could see just how exhausted she was simply by looking at her eyes.

"What's wrong with me?" Maia asked Beck, her voice quiet. "Am I gonna be okay?"

She gazed around at the room in which she sat, her lips pulling down slightly at the mere memory associated with it. She thought she had seen the last of the room after the injury she sustained while working on the transponders, but clearly that wasn't the case. There was only one memory associated with the room that she actually liked, and that was the memory that involved her and Beck.

Beck sat down in front of Maia on the mattress. "You're gonna be fine, Maia."

"What's wrong with me, Beck?"

"It's nothing too serious," he assured her.

"I heard what Johanssen said to you before you brought me up here," Maia reminded him. "If that's the case. . ."

Beck rolled his eyes at her and let out a sigh. "You aren't pregnant, Maia, and you weren't pregnant. I checked."

"Then what's wrong?"

"You have a peptic ulcer," Beck told her. "It was caused by stress, which I assume has gone untreated."

Maia pursed her lips and let go of Beck's hand, running a hand through her hair after doing so. She never would've guessed that was what had been going on with her throughout the past several weeks, but it definitely made sense.

"How long have you had the stomach pain?" Beck asked her, though he believed he already knew the answer.

"Um, a few weeks," Maia answered him slowly. She could tell he knew just by the chastising expression on his face. The man she was talking to at the moment was not her boyfriend, but her doctor. Maia had quite the love/hate relationship with both of them.

Beck nodded in understanding and clasped his hands together in his lap. "What have you been eating?"

"Water and some stuff," Maia answered with an innocent smile.

"We both know that's a lie."

Maia sighed and very carefully laid back against her pillow. "You know I like to binge-eat when I'm stressed out."

"I do," Beck said with a nod of his head. "I also know you happen to enjoy binge-eating rather spicy foods when you're stressed as well. With your current level of stress combined with the amount of very unhealthy shit you've been eating lately, your body just couldn't handle it."

"So, what am I supposed to do?"

"Eat healthier, Maia—that's a start," Beck replied.

"Well, the stress isn't just going to go away with the snap of my fingers," Maia retorted. "I'm stressed because of my brother and because of everything else going on around me. Dealing with it is a lot harder than you think."

"I know, but I'm going to try to find some way to make it easier for you to deal with it," he assured her. "I've said it before, and I'll say it as much as I need to, but I hate seeing you in such a state, Maia. I'll do whatever it takes to get you back to you again, okay?"

Maia smiled and grabbed his hand again. "Thank you for always looking out for me."

Beck scooted closer to her and reached his hand up to grab her face. "There will never be a time when I'm not. Don't you ever forget that, Maia."

Instead of responding verbally, Maia leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips. She moved to deepen the kiss, but wasn't allowed to continue with her actions due to the pain coursing through her abdomen. She grunted and pulled away from Beck, eliciting a quiet laugh from the flight surgeon.

"You and I are gonna have to take it easy for a couple of weeks," Beck told her.

Maia hummed in response and pressed another kiss to his lips before sitting back in her seat. "It would appear that way."

"Dr. Beck?" Commander Lewis's voice sounded. She appeared in the doorway seconds later, and Maia and Beck turned to look at her. "We're in need of your assistance, or at least Martinez is."

Beck raised a brow and stood up. "What happened?"

"Second-degree burn trying to figure out how to work the coffee machine," Commander Lewis told him with an exasperated sigh. "His password got reset somehow and Johanssen can't figure out how to reset it, so Martinez decided to take things into his own hands. It didn't work out too well for him."

Maia snickered but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Beck and Commander Lewis looked down at her in question.

"Do you know something about that, Watney?" Commander Lewis asked her.

Maia clamped her mouth shut and shook her head. If she told the Commander the truth, there was no doubt she would be in trouble. "No, um, I just find it funny."

Commander Lewis only chuckled and nodded her head before looking back at Beck. "He's in the rec-room. Should I send him up, or should I—"

"I'll come to him," Beck told her.

Commander Lewis nodded and walked out of the room. The moment she was gone, Beck looked down at Maia with a raised brow.

"What did you do?"

Maia shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"The coffee machine," Beck started. "I know you did something to it. Martinez is an idiot, but he's not that big of an idiot."

"Okay, I may have hacked my way into the system and changed his credentials so he couldn't use the machine," Maia explained to him. "It was only to keep him from breaking it again; I'm tired of fixing that damn coffee machine because of him."

Beck laughed and kissed her on top of the head. "God, I love you so much."

"I love you," Maia replied with a smile on her face.

"I'll be back in a little bit, okay?"

Maia nodded and pulled her blanket over her body. "Can you bring me some chocolate or something? I'm hungry."

"Ah, no chocolate for you," Beck said. "For the next couple of weeks I'm putting you on a strict diet to help you heal."

"Seriously?" Maia groaned.

Beck nodded and turned to head out of the room. "Say goodbye to everything you've ever loved."

Maia only growled under her breath and pulled her blanket over her face, earning a laugh from Beck. Maia knew that if Beck's words were true, she was in for an agonizing couple of weeks ahead of her. Recovery road was unfortunately a long one.