Chapter 11

Felix followed the beautiful officer down the hallways until she stopped at her quarters, then she waved her door open and entered her room — then closed behind her leaving a puzzled Felix wondering how he was supposed to find his room. He stood outside Lt. Cadman's door for a minute waiting, and then knocked politely on her door.

She opened the door wearing just a long t-shirt and nothing else, and looked red-eyed from being upset about something. Felix stood there for a moment until she snapped at him, "What do you want? Go to your room and leave me alone."

He replied, "Um, that's part of why I'm still here — I don't know where my room is and I don't think I've been cleared for ... the door waving thing."

She chuckled and sobbed at the same time, shook her head and then impulsively pulled him inside her room and locked the door behind them. She stood against the door with her hands behind her back and just stared at him, wondering if she should do what she was thinking.

Felix stood there waiting for an apparent decision on the part of the beautiful woman, wondering in his mind what he had done to piss her off again. He had no ulterior motives to make any moves on her — she was an officer, after all. But whatever decision was obviously in her hands, and he waited patiently and looked around the room.

After a few minutes of both of them just standing there in uncomfortable silence she finally spoke to Felix: "Aren't you going to do anything or say anything? Aren't you going to 'make a move' on me?" She sounded almost bitterly sarcastic with her last question directed towards Felix.

He answered, "So what am I supposed to do — stand here all night until you decide if I get taken to my room, or 'make a move' on you? What do you want me to say, ma'am? Huh? You pulled me in here - I wasn't invited."

She interrupted him, "Well, I'm inviting you in, so there."

He replied, "All right — so now what?"

She continued to look at his face and finally replied, "I don't know. What do you think?"

He said, "I know that I'm tired and I need some sleep — that's why I was wondering about my room."

She finally came to a decision and said, "Don't worry about your room tonight — you can sleep here." With that she shook her head and went over to the linen closet and grabbed a couple of blankets and a pillow and gave them to Felix. She pointed to an area away from her bed and said, "If you want to, you can sleep there — I need sleep as well."

Felix shrugged as she went over to her bed and sat on it, not making any effort to get under the covers. He placed the blankets on the floor in a corner so he could see and cover the room - his usual routine that she probably wouldn't understand. He put the pillow down, lay on one side of the blankets, removed the SSG Diablo and placed it next to his head, and then rolled into the blankets. He made a point of lying so he could cover the whole room at an instant if need be, and then closed his eyes in an attempt to sleep. After a few minutes he opened his eyes and looked over to see the blonde still staring at him, and occasionally shaking her head at something. He asked, "Everything okay? Or shall I just go and sleep in the hallway? I won't sleep if you keep staring at me, you should know."

She sat there for another minute, not saying anything but just staring at his face. Then she sighed, got up, grabbed her blankets and pillow off her bed — and dropped them next to Felix on the floor. She quickly set them so she was next to Felix, lay down on her blankets, and then leaned on an elbow towards him and continues staring at him.

Felix started chuckling and said, "You do have a way of starting to make a person wonder, you know. Why do you keep staring at me?"

She finally replied, "I don't know why — you aren't handsome but you aren't ugly by far, that's for sure. You don't make a move to seduce me, you aren't put off by me — are you gay?"

Felix snorted and replied, "Not bloody likely! Why would you care?"

She replied, "I'm just trying to figure you out, Felix — you are like a chameleon. Just when I think I have you figured out, you drop another shell. Do you realize that you are the first person to actually shut Rodney MacKay up? That's incredible! And you did it without meaning to! And the things you've done..."

Felix looked away and said softly, "Yeah, the things I've done..."

She pulled him back so he was facing her again and asked, "So why don't we tell each other something that the other would never know about? You know, kind of to break the ice?"

Felix replied with, "Why do you want to know something about me?"

She came back with, "Why not? Scared?"

He pursed his lips and said, "Yeah, sometimes I get scared — not right now — but I do get scared at times."

Laura asked, "Why?"

Felix thought for a moment and then replied, "I wondered for quite a time if I was ever going to wake to see the next day, or the next not wake at all because I'm dead in my sleep."

"What happened to you out there?"

"Hell happened and I managed to survive."

He looked away and tried to roll away to hide from Cadman, but she rolled him back to face her and said, "Look at me — you are safe here — I'm not going to hurt you. At least take off your boots and try to relax."

"Relax? I haven't been able to relax in so long — what if I can't?"

She replied with an impish smile and said, "That's where I can help — I can get you to relax a bit."

He finally sat up and removed his boots and placed them just off to the side but within easy reach if need be. He lay back down and said, "Better?"

She said, "It's a start. So tell me something about yourself — have you ever been married?"