<USS Avalon> Battling the Darkness

Battling the Darkness
Junior Lieutenant Patrick McEntire 
and Ensign Nikkole Archer 


The darkness was still there. Nikkole widened her eyes and looked around, 
trying to take in anything. Anything at all. Instead, it was just the darkness, 
deeper than the void of space. She whimpered and even reached up to touch her 
eye, making sure it was open. That did nothing but cause pain and cause her 
eyes to water. Her eyes were open. She just couldn't see. 

Nikkole wanted to scream, to cry out, feeling one of her worst nightmares 
become reality. But last time... last time they came and they held her down and 
they made her sleep and the dreams still haunted her. There was a disappearance 
of time, not true sleep and that missing memory frightened her nearly as much 
as the darkness in her vision. The one thing she did remember as pleasant 
though... "Patrick?" she called out softly. 

Mac heard Nikki calling quietly to him. "I'm here." He called back quietly, 
rising slowly and moving carefully toward the sound of her voice in the 
darkness. Reaching her, he took her hand gently."I'm right here..."

Squeezing his hand as tightly as hers would allow, she held onto him as a 
lifeline, the only thing real in this new world without color or shape. 
"Patrick, I can't see," she managed to choke out as tears threatened to spill 
uncontrollably from her eyes. 

"I know, Nikki. None of us can. It's not permanent, though. It's okay. It's not 
going to stay like this," he promised, hoping to God it was true. He could hear 
the fear and near panic in her voice. Gathering her into his arms, he held her 
close, and whispered,"It's going to be okay..."

She shifted to make space for him in her bed, clinging into his arms. "How do 
you know?" She buried her head into his chest and confessed, "I'm afraid of the 
dark." 

He felt her shift and laid down next to her, drawing her close to him and 
holding her gently. "Don't be afraid. I'm right here. I've got you, and 
nothing's gonna touch you, okay? You're safe here, I promise."

"Just don't leave me here. Promise you won't leave me here." She began crying 
in that pitiful way that only someone who is absolutely terrified can. "What if 
they... can't make it better?" 

"I won't leave you. I promise. I'm not going anywhere." He stroked her hair 
gently. "They'll take care of it...they'll make it better, and until then, I'm 
going to be right here with you."

"I wish I could be sure as you," she sniffed, feeling somewhat reassured. In 
all the commotion and panic, it never occurred to her to wonder why she kept 
reaching out for Mac, but she did and it was a nice feeling. Reaching up to 
wipe away the tears, she told him, "When I was little, I accidentally locked 
myself inside a cabinet and it was so dark that I thought I was going blind and 
I screamed and screamed for my mom and dad, but they couldn't find me for 
hours. And ever since then..." She let the sentence trail away, knowing that 
he'd understand the point of her childish fear. "Going blind has always been 
one of my worst nightmares and now I'm living it." 

Mac considered that a moment. "When I was a kid as lived on a ranch. We had 
animals and orchards and stuff." he confided quietly,"I used to hide up in the 
seed bins when my old man got mad. There was alot of us, so it didn't take much 
for one of us or another to get him pretty riled. It was always dark in there, 
though, and so I got good at handling dark places and close quarters. Never 
bothered me much." He tried to see it from her perspective, as something to be 
feared and couldn't. Still, there was no denying she was truly afraid. "It's 
temporary, though. You'll survive it and conquer it and then we'll move on. You 
just can't let the fear own you, okay?"

"Not that easy, you know. Not at all. And you don't know this won't last... I 
mean, what if everyone of us are blind for the rest of our lives? There's not a 
lot they can do about it, y'know." She was trying not to get aggravated at his 
sense of calm. Slowly, but surely it was having an effect on her. Nikki was 
already less frightened. 

Mac fought hard not to laugh as her feistiness began to win out. "There's 
always something. I know it's temporary because there ain't no way in hell I'll 
accept it's permanent, and I'd be willing to lay odds Josh won't either. If 
nothing else, there's always the option of one of them visors or ocular 
implants. I don't believe it'll come to that, though." He waited for her to get 
more irritated, certain that an angry Nikki is still stronger and more 
independent than a frightened one.

"Anyone ever told you that you're annoyingly optimistic?" 

Mac laughed outright at that. "Yup, heard it a time or ten. I'm usually right, 
though."

"I just wish... I wish I knew what happened or what's been done, exactly. I 
mean, I could probably calculate the probability of getting my sight back... at 
least it would give me something to concentrate on." She settled into Mac's 
embrace a little easier, just as if they'd known each others for ages and it 
didn't seem the least bit awkward.

He laughed again. "How about calculating the likelihood of us all being able to 
get back to work tomorrow? I'm sure of the one. Not so sure of the other, and I 
can almost guarantee the Kid's gonna be itching to get out of here the minute 
he's awake." He didn't add the 'ifs' that seemed to plague that stream of 
thought. If he wakes up. If he recovers. If he's suffered no permanent damage. 
He was lowest on oxygen for the longest and still hadn't made a sound. Mac 
shook off the line of thought and focused again on Nikki. "And while you're at 
it, calculate the odds of me getting a date with you when this is all over."

Nikki smiled in spite of herself. "Ah, no deal. You weren't supposed to pass 
out on me... that was the agreement, babe."

Mac laughed easily at that. "I don't remember passing out. I think you're 
making it up to get out of our date, now. Come on, you can't hold something I 
don't remember against me."

Laughing as well, Nikki tipped her head up and brushed her lips lightly against 
Mac's. "Way to lawyer your way outta that one." 

Mac returned the light kiss with a slightly more serious one of his own. "So, 
does that mean it's a date?"

"Yeah... but I ain't sharing you with Lela and Lola and Imajean or whatever 
their names were. It's a one on one thingie, got it?" 

At that one, Mac roared, mostly because he couldn't ever remember their names 
either. "Got it." 


                
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