The Complication

Linger On Your Pale Blue Eyes

Castillo laughed.

"You're joking right?" Castillo laughed.

His face fell.

"Right?" he pressed.

Tasha's cheeks flushed.

"No," she admitted.

Castillo was looking at her funny.

Is this pity? Tasha thought.

She loathed pity.

"I suppose things really are different here," Castillo remarked as he looked around the room.

Everything on this ship, this world seemed darker than his own time. There was a spartan-like quality to their lives. These were people that had been living in survival mode for too long.

Castillo turned back to Tasha.

"Really. Thank you. If you're expecting to take me back to your place the answer is yes," Castillo teased.

"Gods you're a cocky thing, aren't you? This morning it was all 'oh I'll never see my family again.' And now hours later you're trying it on!" Tasha fumed in disbelief. "What about that family, eh?"

Tasha shook her head.

"Let me guess, a wife? Kids? Twenty-two years. There's a good chance they're still alive. And they've probably spent this whole time thinking of you," Tasha said.

Her voice was dripping with disdain as Tasha and made no effort to mask her disapproval.

"My mum," Castillo said in a small voice.

It was so unlike his previously self-assured attitude.

"She's uh-"

Castillo stopped and scratched his head.

"Well my dad left when I was little. I... I'm all she has," Castillo confessed.

The chance to sit down and eat had provided Castillo with an opportunity to process what had happened.

For the first time since coming aboard, Richard dropped his personal shields. Tasha was finally getting a glimpse of the real Richard Castillo.

"So the 'call me Richard' bit wasn't just a line," Tasha realised aloud.

Castillo turned away. He pretended to glance at the window so she wouldn't see his eyes well up.

"Maybe I was trying it on. A bit," he said, trying to cover his grief.

Tasha wasn't sure what to say. She had never been good at comforting others. Uncertain of what to do, Tasha reached for his hand.

"I don't know what's going to happen," Tasha said. "And I can't imagine what you're going through."

Castillo laughed.

"This is humiliating. You're the first hot bird I've met in two years that doesn't know I made a fool of myself on the holodeck trying to surf," Castillo shared.

It had been on a leisure day, and more than two dozen crew members had gotten together for an impromptu beach getaway on the holodeck.

Castillo's eyes went wide.

"Dear god. I said that out loud," Richard realised.

His face felt warm.

"I don't even know why I'm telling you this. Fell off the board. One of those endless wave programmes. Injured the dangly bits. Swim trunks so far up my arse everyone got a right peep show," Castillo said.