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2593-13

Eric plopped himself down at the table, a rehydratable meal package in his hand. He should eat something better, but after four hours at the med table, carefully going over Robert's injuries and programming nanites to deal with each of them, he was too tired to even deal with the fabrication unit.

He was keeping Robert unconscious for the time being, at least until his body had rebuilt its strength. The table was monitoring him and feeding him as needed. He could get the nanites to do all of that, but he didn't like over saturating a body with them. If he still needed it once the worst of his injuries were dealt with, he might have them do that.

He distractedly chewed on the meal, hardly tasting it and tried to think of there was anything else he could do for Robert. He couldn't start repairing the leg yet, he needed Robert awake to find out how he wanted it done. Eric expected he'd want it regrown, the hyena never gave any indications he wanted mechanical augmentation, but he wouldn't take that for granted.

"Eric?" Someone said softly. "Can I talk with you?" It took him a moment to identify Will.

"Can it wait? I'm finishing this and then going to bed. I'm exhausted."

The wolf looked down, then at the door, before shaking his head. "No, I don't think it can."

Eric frowned, William's shoulders were slumped, his tone trembling. He looked and sounded like he didn't want to be there.

"Okay, grab a seat."

"Can...can we go to your office instead? I'd rather this be private."

Now Eric was concerned. What could Will have to tell him that the others couldn't over hear. He stood and grabbed a cup of coffee. "Okay." He had his implant generate a mild stimulant to wake him until the caffeine kicked in.

Once in his office he sat, and William stayed by the closed door.

"Will, what's wrong?"

The wolf looked at him, opened his muzzle, shut it, then paced the length of the short wall. He went to speak again, but didn't.

"Will, sit down, please."

William hesitated, looked at the door, the chair, the door again.

"William." Eric almost growled, his annoyance making itself heard.

With a sigh of resignation the wolf sat down. Looking at the floor he said. "I did it. I'm the one who put the case there."

Eric stared at him for a moment, replaying what he'd said. Then he set the room to record the meeting.

"What did you say?"

With another sigh William looked up at him. "I'm the one who put the case in the array."

"Why would you do such a thing?"

"Xavier asked me to."

"Xavier asked you to sabotage the array and you agreed?"

"Of course not! He told me it contained dyes and hardening foams."

"Why would he want that in the array?"

"To get back at you for dumping him."

Eric stared at the wolf. "I didn't dump him."

"Come on Eric, you fired him and kicked him off your ship, it doesn't get any clearer than that."

The tiger shook his head. "I wasn't in a relationship with him."

"Eric, I know you told him to keep it secret, but I'm his best friend, you had to know he was going to tell me about it. I kept the secret so it wouldn't cause problems with the crew, but come on, everyone had to know."

"William, how many times have you heard me warn a new crewman I didn't do relationships."

"I know you said that but-"

"How many time William?"

"I don't know, ever since that lemur, Patrick I think his name was."

"It was. Why have I been doing that?"

"Because of the shit storm he caused when he said he was in love with you and you wouldn't have anything to do with that."

"Exactly. I had to deal with him going from pining and bitching for more than six months. Do you remember how disrupting that was? How he'd scream at the crew every other day because they were having sex with me? How he was supposed to be my special guy?"

The wolf nodded

"What makes you think I'd ever want to have to deal with shit like that ever again?"

"Xavier wasn't like that. He didn't have any problem with you sleeping with the rest of us. He didn't expect you to tell them how you felt about him, he was perfectly happy for your relationship to be secret."

"There was no relationship."

"Eric, I saw it with my own eyes. If there was something that needed to be done, you asked him. You'd take him out for special dates."

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw the two of you on the station back on earth, remember? You can't tell me it wasn't one of your dates."

"It wasn't."

"He told me about it, how you surprised him with a meal at Ritzo Balkan, and how you two had sex in one of the parts cleaning pools afterward."

Eric sighed. "I didn't take him there. He proposed going to a restaurant to celebrate our return to earth. I agreed and told him to let the crew know about it."

William shook his head. "How about the sex?"

"It happened, but Xavier brought me there."

"No, you're the one who knew about it, I heard you talk about getting something like that installed on the ship."

"Xavier gave me the contact information of his friend, who gave me that of his company, who put me in contact with the company that makes the pool." He'd put in the request to get it installed, but his brother had stopped it. He wanted some research done first on how it would behave in a changing environment.

"What about when you asked him to help you raise your kids? Design your new room?"

Eric rolled his eyes. "I never did any such thing."

"You're lying."

Eric glared at the wolf. "When have you ever known me to lie."

William looked away. "But Xavier told me-"

"He lied." Eric took a long swallow of his cooling coffee, not that he needed it, his implant and the adrenaline from the shock of what William had done was enough to keep him awake, but he needed time to think.

"He wouldn't lie to me," William whispered, to himself, it seemed to Eric.

"I think he was lying to himself. When did he tell you it started."

The wolf raised his head, but his gaze was distant. Eric wondered if William had his implant set to keep memories that far back, but his uncertain response told him he didn't.

"I think it was six months after he joined. We'd become friends and he asked me how serious you were about not doing relationship. He said he'd noticed you watching him. I told him you were serious about it, and I explained what happened with Patrick."

Eric tried to remember how he'd behaved around Xavier during that first trip to Titan, but he couldn't even remember interacting with the zebra other than to have sex with him.

"On the way back to earth he told me how you'd taken him to the station and that you'd talked, that you asked questions about him, you know getting to know him kind of questions."

Eric tilted an ear. What kind of questions were those? He remembered Xavier coming with him on the station, One of the mining company had wanted a meeting with him to renegotiate prices. They'd tried to raise their prices unreasonably. In the end Eric had locked their contract under the 'negotiating in bad faith' clause and sent it to headquarter to resolve. Had he talked with Xavier while walking there? He might have, but all he remembered was going over the reasons why the company might want the meeting, how it might affect their departure, and if that was why the array hadn't been ready on their arrival.

He realized William was still talking and reviewed the recording from his implant. Eric knew he tended to get lost in his own thoughts so he had his implant keep a ten-minute buffer. William had talked about reinforcing that Eric didn't do relationships, of Xavier mentioning other encounters on the ship where they talked.

"And then, about a month from Earth he told me that you'd taken him to bed and told him how you felt about him."

"Really? I professed my love to him? Me? Will, you've known me longer than anyone on the ship. Hell, other than my family you're probably the person who knows me the best, how could you ever believe that I'd professed my love to anyone, let along him."

The wolf shrugged. "Yeah, I've known you for years, but it isn't like I *know* you. You're pretty damn private. Yeah we talk, but it's been about the ship, the food, the drinks, your family, or the sex. I can't recall one time when you volunteered information about you. I don't even know if you ever dated anyone."

Eric couldn't believe William thought he might have dated anyone at any time.

"So who the hell am I to tell Xavier he was wrong? He said you didn't want the crew to know because of how adamant you'd been about not getting in a relationship for all those years. You didn't want any of them to feel like you'd been dishonest with them."

"Really? Will, do you really think I care that much about my crew's feelings?"

"I don't know, okay? Love changes a guy. Yeah, you're pretty damn self-involved, but I figured that falling in love made you realized that you tended to keep others at a distance, and you'd finally noticed how it could hurt some of us to know you preferred him over us"

Eric laughed. "Of course I'm emotionally distant. I don't feel emotions to the same level the rest of your do. I didn't love Xavier because I can't love anyone. I don't care what you think of my decisions because past caring that you're taken care of sexually and as one of my crew, I just don't care. It isn't that I refuse to, I can't. It's the way I'm wired. Why do you think I find it so annoying when someone like Patrick and Xavier gets all emotional? So When I tell you that there was nothing between me and Xavier, it's got nothing to do with me not wanting there to be. There couldn't be anything there. The kind of love a relationship like that needs is beyond me."

"You don't feel anything?" William asked, clearly surprised.

"I feel, just not strongly. If I did I imagine I might have pounded Xavier's head in before I'd been able to fire him. He got really annoying on the trip back to earth."

"I didn't know."

Eric waved it aside. "You never asked. To get back to what happened on the array."

William closed his eyes and winced.

"You said you didn't know explosives were in the case, but when you entered the lounge, when you saw what Robert was about to do, you tried to warn him away. Why do that if you didn't know the case would explode?"

"Xavier told me that once I placed the case, it would become really sensitive so I had to be careful. He also said that the stuff in it would be sent all across the central corridor, so I figured there'd be some sort of explosive, and that Robert could get hurt, as close as he was. That's why I tried to warn him. I swear Eric, if I'd even suspected what was in there, I wouldn't have brought it on board. Xavier just wanted you to have a hard time. He was pissed and heart broken."

"'What might have beens' won't fix anything." Eric stated, and William's shoulders slouched lower. "Do you have any idea how much you've cost the company? Just to repair the array, we're looking at a few million. If pirates get to even one pod before our allies collect them, it jumps into the billions." Eric chuckled. "Pirates, hell, our rivals operate in this area too, so they're as likely as anyone else to steal them."

"I'm sorry Eric."

The tiger sighed. "What the hell am I going to do Will? What do you expect me to do with you?"

The wolf looked up but he couldn't meet Eric's gaze. "I'll take whatever punishment you think is appropriate."

Eric chuckled. "Fuck, you think I get to decide this? I have your confession on record. With the kind of money involved, headquarter is going to decide your fate."

William didn't show any sign of surprise at having been recorded. He simply nodded.

Eric leaned back in his chair. "Damn it, Will, of everyone on the ship, you're the one person I thought I could trust without question."

"I'm sorry, Captain." William's shoulders were slouching so much now Eric wondered if the wolf might not fall off the chair.

He sighed. "For now, go about your duties. Don't talk about this with the crew. I won't. What happened stays between us until a decision has been reached, is that understood?"

William's surprise was evident, but there was no relief there. "Wouldn't be better if I was put under arrest?"

"What is that going to accomplish? Once Gerald manages to seal the array, he's going to need your help to get the life support going in it."

"I don't know if I should-"

"Will, I don't have time for your doubts right now. I don't have another life support expert, so I need you to buck up and do your job."

"Yes, Captain."

"Go rest Will. After this you have to need sleep."

The wolf nodded and left, shambling out of his office.

Eric sighed again. What was he going to do with this?