A Sequel to Complexity
Title: Simplicity
Characters: Chloe Armstrong, Eli Wallace, Matthew Scott, Nicholas Rush
Pairing: Chloe/Rush
Rating: T
Content Notice: language
Summary: Chloe thought this would be simple but she was soon proven wrong. Between settling things with Matt and trying to work out what exactly her relationship with Rush was, simplicity went out the porthole.
Disclaimer: Stargate Universe doesn't belong to me.
A/N: Sequel to Complexity. Surprised me just as much as you. But brontegirl89 asked about a possibility of this going on and I had some ideas, so this might go on for a while longer. The question is just how much I adhere to post-Deliverance canon. Any opinions?
Chloe knew something was wrong with Eli the moment she came into the mess hall. He looked up from his breakfast, spotted her, his eyes went wide and then he blushed. He hadn't blushed around her in months and Chloe wondered what could be the reason.
"Morning," she greeted him just as warmly as usual but he only mumbled in return and stared down at his plate. "Hey, is something wrong?" she tried again and he raised his head to stare at her.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" he asked and Chloe frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"Shit, you don't know. Of course, you don't know," Eli rambled nervously. "It was meant to be secret, after all and I should have guessed you aren't into the kinky stuff like that but-"
Chloe reached over, clamped her hand over Eli's mouth and glared.
"What. Are. You. Talking. About?" she enunciated slowly. Eli gulped and she took off her hand to let him answer.
"The chalk board corridor is under a Kino surveillance," he whispered quickly and Chloe sat back in surprise.
"Shit!" she let out, understanding immediately what Eli had meant. "Who knows?"
"Just me, for now, but I'll have to report to Colonel Young and, what the hell were you thinking?" he cried out and Chloe looked around, seeing the stares they were starting to attract.
"Could we talk about it elsewhere?" she asked and when Eli nodded, she stood up, leading him away from the mess and into the first deserted corridor she could find. Once there, she took a deep breath before straightening up and looking at him.
"Are you angry with me?"
"I... I don't know. God, Chloe, you slept with Rush. I don't know what I'm supposed to think."
Chloe shrugged.
"That I'm a grown woman who's perfectly capable of making her own choices?" she suggested archly but then her voice softened. "It's hard to explain, Eli. I have been an outcast these past few months. A freak turning into an alien. A threat to the ship. Even you and Matt looked at me with a pity. How long did it take Colonel Young to come and visit me? I wanted to feel like me again and, hard as it is to imagine, Rush makes me feel normal. Relatively speaking."
"Rush? You had sex with him, in the chalk board corridor no less, and you still call him Rush?" Eli sputtered and Chloe started laughing with him. "That is so messed up."
"It's a force of habit," she defended herself. Eli nodded but still snickered before he became serious again.
"What's really going on? Are you an item now or what?"
"I don't know. Last night was a spur of the moment thing and we didn't really discuss it. There is also Matt to consider and..." Chloe leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. "I thought it was simple but it's not, is it?"
"No, it's a mess," Eli agreed. Chloe closed her eyes for a moment. She had slept well but she felt tired all of a sudden.
"Could you wait for a bit before reporting to the Colonel?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. "I'm not exactly looking forward to how he'll react."
"I fail to see why he should have any say in my personal life," Chloe muttered.
"It involves Rush," Eli pointed out. "Anything to do with him tends to set Colonel off. And he is kinda protective of you, so he'll go after Rush for that alone."
"How much have you seen, Eli?" she asked and he raised his hands defensively.
"Whoa, whoa. I stopped watching as soon as it became clear what was about to happen. I'm not a pervert!"
"I'm not saying you are," she soothed. "I meant, did you see who initiated things?"
"You did," Eli replied and Chloe smiled.
"Exactly. I did. I wasn't forced or manipulated into it. I wanted it to happen and it did. End of the story. I'll tell you the truth, Eli. I don't know where this thing with Rush is going but I want to find out without an outside interference. A couple of days to figure things out is all I need. Can you give me that much?"
She was fairly sure Eli would heed her request. They were best friends, after all. He thought for a moment and she almost saw the moment he decided to agree.
"Sure. Just promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise."
She reached out and squeezed his hand for a moment, smiling. And then she let go and set out for the bridge. There were some matters that needed clearing up, sooner rather than later. Half-way there, though, Chloe heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she spotted Matt who was jogging down the corridor.
He must have been doing his morning run. He was smiling at seeing her and Chloe felt a stab of guilt. They weren't officially separated, not yet. For all she knew, Matt was being considerate and giving her space while she was already planning her life without him being such an important part of it as he had used to be.
"Hey, I almost didn't recognize you, stranger," he joked when he came to a stop next to her. Chloe forced a smile.
"Sorry about that, I should have come by sooner."
"Take your time, Chloe. I'll be waiting."
And he was looking so earnest saying that that Chloe felt like the lowest of lows.
"Matt," she started saying but paused, at a momentary loss how to continue. "I... I don't think you should. Wait for me, that is."
He frowned at her.
"Chloe?"
Like a band aid, she thought, quick and with a momentary pain that passes quickly.
"I'm not moving back with you. I'm sorry but we are over."
She cringed at how high-school it sounded but her last break-up had been with Josh who had then gone on to screw her supposed best friend. And now she was ending things with a guy who had professed to love her and she him because he hadn't been there for her when she had been turning into an alien and she still felt disconnected from him because of that. Maybe the fault was solely in her and she should reconsider having any personal relationships with her track record.
"You don't mean that," Matt said. "I know it hasn't been the best between us lately but we can work through this. I still love you."
"And I love you but it just isn't enough," Chloe told him sadly. It wouldn't be fair for either of them to continue their relationship, not when so many things had changed - in them, around them and between them.
"You really mean it, don't you?"
She nodded, looking down.
"I'm not the same as I used to be. I may look the same but something in me has changed forever. I can still do the FTL calculations and Eli's been teaching me some math and even Rush was impressed by my work in the chalk board corridor."
The double meaning of her words occured to her a moment later and she was grateful that her hair hid most of her face from Matt. He wasn't really looking at her, though, staring instead over her head.
"So that's it?" he asked. "You won't even try?"
"Better to end it now while we can still salvage our friendship," she retorted, stung by his implied accusation. "I don't want us at odds, Matt and we can't afford that, either, not out here. I will always cherish our time together but sometimes, things just don't work out and this is one of those times."
"So, thank you for the good times and goodbye, right?" he snorted but then he shook his head sadly. "I won't stop hoping, Chloe."
"You wouldn't be you if you did but I won't change my mind."
They stood in silence, the atmosphere more than a bit awkward. And then Matt stepped back from her.
"Well, I still have more than a mile to finish. So I guess I'll be seeing you around?"
"Yeah, see you around."
She watched his figure jog away until he turned the corner and disappeared from view and she couldn't help but feel a bit better. She had been putting this off for long enough and all that was left to clear was where exactly she stood with Rush. Hopefully, with her personal life sorted out, the rest would fall in place eventually.
Nicholas - Eli was right that calling him Rush after everything between them was messed up - sat in the command chair, focusing on a screen. Brody and Volker sat at the front left and right consoles respectively and didn't seem to pay her more attention than Nicholas did. Good.
"Hey," she greeted him, coming to a stop a couple of steps to his right. He looked at her and the intense focus in his face lessened a bit.
"Hey yourself," he returned, looking her over. "How are you?"
"Great, actually," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, wondering how to broach the subject. Strangely, she was more nervous about confronting him than she had been Matt. "I see you're busy," she commented, nodding toward the screen. He turned it in her direction, tapping at the output numbers.
"The power reserves data from yesterday. I'm trying to see if we could reroute some power from the unused sections of the ship to the shields."
"Sounds important."
"The program is still in a search mode, I can spare a minute or two."
"Wow, don't I feel important?" she joked and he smirked, his eyes falling towards the other two men.
"What's the matter?" he asked quietly. Chloe was still somewhat out of sorts due to her talk with Matt but her initial reason for talking with Nicholas was more important.
"I talked to Eli earlier. Did you know that the chalk board corridor is under a Kino surveillance?"
He understood immediately, she could see and even if she didn't recognize the word he used, she was pretty sure it was a curse.
"He just cannae keep his nose out of things, can he?"
"Eli didn't-" she started saying but he cut her off.
"Not Eli. Colonel Young. Eli is a goddamn doormat, he wouldn't do that on his own."
"That goddamn doormat agreed to sit on the records from last night until we figured things out," she hissed, careful not to draw any attention. Nicholas had the grace to look slightly chastised.
"Why can't he just erase them?"
"I didn't ask."
"You should have," he said as if that was a perfect and obvious solution and Chloe took a quick breath. Letting it out, she leaned over, whispering furiously.
"Well, sorry for not thinking of the obvious. Not all of us are geniuses here."
He gave her a contemplative look and then stood up.
"Keep working, I'll be just a moment," he called out to Volker and Brody and left the bridge, Chloe following close by. The door closed behind them with a hiss and Nicholas turned to her, crossing his arms. "Now, what is all of this really about?"
Chloe slumped against the wall.
"I don't know. I guess I expected to have more time to think about everything. Eli now knows we had sex and he asked me what you and I were and I had no idea what to tell him and then I ran into Matt and ended things for good but... I just don't know. I thought it was simple but it's not. It's all complicated and I hate the uncertainty."
"So now that you and Lieutenant Scott are no longer together you want us to define our relationship," he stated simply.
"Do we even have one?" Chloe asked pointedly. "I mean, we had sex and it was good but was it just a one-time thing or could this be something more?"
"What do you want it to be, Chloe?" he asked pointedly. "I already told you I wouldn't mind if this went on but if it doesn't..." he shrugged. "One good memory is still better than no memory at all."
"I want to give it a try," she admitted. "Not just for the physical part but also..." she sighed and looked to the side. "I laughed yesterday. Do you know how long has it been since I laughed?"
"I would guess a while."
"Right. A while. That's one way to put it," she muttered before she looked up from where she was staring at her shoes. "What are we going to do?"
"Small steps, Chloe. We don't have to make all the decisions now. For now we agree to give it a try without labeling things. We get along well and we're rather compatible, in several things. Let it be enough for now."
"Kinda like a 'friends with benefits' thing?" she suggested and Nicholas nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes, that could work. We can always adjust it later."
"Okay," she said. "So, I'll see you later tonight?"
"Earlier than that, I think. The results of the diagnostic of the power reserves data should be ready by then and your assistance would be welcome."
Chloe nodded and Nicholas straightened up and started walking down the corridor away from the bridge.
"Erm, Nicholas?" Chloe called out after him. "Aren't you going back to the bridge?"
"In a minute. I need a quick word with Eli first."
It took Chloe a minute to realize what he planned on doing and by then it was too late and he was gone from sight. Well, Eli had been standing up for himself more as of late and if, in this particular case, Nicholas suceeded in intimidating him into deleting the evidence of their indiscretion, Chloe wouldn't be particularly upset about it. Just the way it had been accomplished.
A/N 2: I'm ending it here for now. Next chapter should be smutty again. Also, I strongly dislike Scott but I don't believe in character bashing so I hope I didn't butcher him too much.
Characters: Chloe Armstrong, Eli Wallace, Matthew Scott, Nicholas Rush
Pairing: Chloe/Rush
Rating: T
Content Notice: language
Summary: Chloe thought this would be simple but she was soon proven wrong. Between settling things with Matt and trying to work out what exactly her relationship with Rush was, simplicity went out the porthole.
Disclaimer: Stargate Universe doesn't belong to me.
A/N: Sequel to Complexity. Surprised me just as much as you. But brontegirl89 asked about a possibility of this going on and I had some ideas, so this might go on for a while longer. The question is just how much I adhere to post-Deliverance canon. Any opinions?
Chloe knew something was wrong with Eli the moment she came into the mess hall. He looked up from his breakfast, spotted her, his eyes went wide and then he blushed. He hadn't blushed around her in months and Chloe wondered what could be the reason.
"Morning," she greeted him just as warmly as usual but he only mumbled in return and stared down at his plate. "Hey, is something wrong?" she tried again and he raised his head to stare at her.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking that?" he asked and Chloe frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"Shit, you don't know. Of course, you don't know," Eli rambled nervously. "It was meant to be secret, after all and I should have guessed you aren't into the kinky stuff like that but-"
Chloe reached over, clamped her hand over Eli's mouth and glared.
"What. Are. You. Talking. About?" she enunciated slowly. Eli gulped and she took off her hand to let him answer.
"The chalk board corridor is under a Kino surveillance," he whispered quickly and Chloe sat back in surprise.
"Shit!" she let out, understanding immediately what Eli had meant. "Who knows?"
"Just me, for now, but I'll have to report to Colonel Young and, what the hell were you thinking?" he cried out and Chloe looked around, seeing the stares they were starting to attract.
"Could we talk about it elsewhere?" she asked and when Eli nodded, she stood up, leading him away from the mess and into the first deserted corridor she could find. Once there, she took a deep breath before straightening up and looking at him.
"Are you angry with me?"
"I... I don't know. God, Chloe, you slept with Rush. I don't know what I'm supposed to think."
Chloe shrugged.
"That I'm a grown woman who's perfectly capable of making her own choices?" she suggested archly but then her voice softened. "It's hard to explain, Eli. I have been an outcast these past few months. A freak turning into an alien. A threat to the ship. Even you and Matt looked at me with a pity. How long did it take Colonel Young to come and visit me? I wanted to feel like me again and, hard as it is to imagine, Rush makes me feel normal. Relatively speaking."
"Rush? You had sex with him, in the chalk board corridor no less, and you still call him Rush?" Eli sputtered and Chloe started laughing with him. "That is so messed up."
"It's a force of habit," she defended herself. Eli nodded but still snickered before he became serious again.
"What's really going on? Are you an item now or what?"
"I don't know. Last night was a spur of the moment thing and we didn't really discuss it. There is also Matt to consider and..." Chloe leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. "I thought it was simple but it's not, is it?"
"No, it's a mess," Eli agreed. Chloe closed her eyes for a moment. She had slept well but she felt tired all of a sudden.
"Could you wait for a bit before reporting to the Colonel?" she asked.
"Sure," he said. "I'm not exactly looking forward to how he'll react."
"I fail to see why he should have any say in my personal life," Chloe muttered.
"It involves Rush," Eli pointed out. "Anything to do with him tends to set Colonel off. And he is kinda protective of you, so he'll go after Rush for that alone."
"How much have you seen, Eli?" she asked and he raised his hands defensively.
"Whoa, whoa. I stopped watching as soon as it became clear what was about to happen. I'm not a pervert!"
"I'm not saying you are," she soothed. "I meant, did you see who initiated things?"
"You did," Eli replied and Chloe smiled.
"Exactly. I did. I wasn't forced or manipulated into it. I wanted it to happen and it did. End of the story. I'll tell you the truth, Eli. I don't know where this thing with Rush is going but I want to find out without an outside interference. A couple of days to figure things out is all I need. Can you give me that much?"
She was fairly sure Eli would heed her request. They were best friends, after all. He thought for a moment and she almost saw the moment he decided to agree.
"Sure. Just promise me you'll be careful."
"I promise."
She reached out and squeezed his hand for a moment, smiling. And then she let go and set out for the bridge. There were some matters that needed clearing up, sooner rather than later. Half-way there, though, Chloe heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she spotted Matt who was jogging down the corridor.
He must have been doing his morning run. He was smiling at seeing her and Chloe felt a stab of guilt. They weren't officially separated, not yet. For all she knew, Matt was being considerate and giving her space while she was already planning her life without him being such an important part of it as he had used to be.
"Hey, I almost didn't recognize you, stranger," he joked when he came to a stop next to her. Chloe forced a smile.
"Sorry about that, I should have come by sooner."
"Take your time, Chloe. I'll be waiting."
And he was looking so earnest saying that that Chloe felt like the lowest of lows.
"Matt," she started saying but paused, at a momentary loss how to continue. "I... I don't think you should. Wait for me, that is."
He frowned at her.
"Chloe?"
Like a band aid, she thought, quick and with a momentary pain that passes quickly.
"I'm not moving back with you. I'm sorry but we are over."
She cringed at how high-school it sounded but her last break-up had been with Josh who had then gone on to screw her supposed best friend. And now she was ending things with a guy who had professed to love her and she him because he hadn't been there for her when she had been turning into an alien and she still felt disconnected from him because of that. Maybe the fault was solely in her and she should reconsider having any personal relationships with her track record.
"You don't mean that," Matt said. "I know it hasn't been the best between us lately but we can work through this. I still love you."
"And I love you but it just isn't enough," Chloe told him sadly. It wouldn't be fair for either of them to continue their relationship, not when so many things had changed - in them, around them and between them.
"You really mean it, don't you?"
She nodded, looking down.
"I'm not the same as I used to be. I may look the same but something in me has changed forever. I can still do the FTL calculations and Eli's been teaching me some math and even Rush was impressed by my work in the chalk board corridor."
The double meaning of her words occured to her a moment later and she was grateful that her hair hid most of her face from Matt. He wasn't really looking at her, though, staring instead over her head.
"So that's it?" he asked. "You won't even try?"
"Better to end it now while we can still salvage our friendship," she retorted, stung by his implied accusation. "I don't want us at odds, Matt and we can't afford that, either, not out here. I will always cherish our time together but sometimes, things just don't work out and this is one of those times."
"So, thank you for the good times and goodbye, right?" he snorted but then he shook his head sadly. "I won't stop hoping, Chloe."
"You wouldn't be you if you did but I won't change my mind."
They stood in silence, the atmosphere more than a bit awkward. And then Matt stepped back from her.
"Well, I still have more than a mile to finish. So I guess I'll be seeing you around?"
"Yeah, see you around."
She watched his figure jog away until he turned the corner and disappeared from view and she couldn't help but feel a bit better. She had been putting this off for long enough and all that was left to clear was where exactly she stood with Rush. Hopefully, with her personal life sorted out, the rest would fall in place eventually.
Nicholas - Eli was right that calling him Rush after everything between them was messed up - sat in the command chair, focusing on a screen. Brody and Volker sat at the front left and right consoles respectively and didn't seem to pay her more attention than Nicholas did. Good.
"Hey," she greeted him, coming to a stop a couple of steps to his right. He looked at her and the intense focus in his face lessened a bit.
"Hey yourself," he returned, looking her over. "How are you?"
"Great, actually," she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, wondering how to broach the subject. Strangely, she was more nervous about confronting him than she had been Matt. "I see you're busy," she commented, nodding toward the screen. He turned it in her direction, tapping at the output numbers.
"The power reserves data from yesterday. I'm trying to see if we could reroute some power from the unused sections of the ship to the shields."
"Sounds important."
"The program is still in a search mode, I can spare a minute or two."
"Wow, don't I feel important?" she joked and he smirked, his eyes falling towards the other two men.
"What's the matter?" he asked quietly. Chloe was still somewhat out of sorts due to her talk with Matt but her initial reason for talking with Nicholas was more important.
"I talked to Eli earlier. Did you know that the chalk board corridor is under a Kino surveillance?"
He understood immediately, she could see and even if she didn't recognize the word he used, she was pretty sure it was a curse.
"He just cannae keep his nose out of things, can he?"
"Eli didn't-" she started saying but he cut her off.
"Not Eli. Colonel Young. Eli is a goddamn doormat, he wouldn't do that on his own."
"That goddamn doormat agreed to sit on the records from last night until we figured things out," she hissed, careful not to draw any attention. Nicholas had the grace to look slightly chastised.
"Why can't he just erase them?"
"I didn't ask."
"You should have," he said as if that was a perfect and obvious solution and Chloe took a quick breath. Letting it out, she leaned over, whispering furiously.
"Well, sorry for not thinking of the obvious. Not all of us are geniuses here."
He gave her a contemplative look and then stood up.
"Keep working, I'll be just a moment," he called out to Volker and Brody and left the bridge, Chloe following close by. The door closed behind them with a hiss and Nicholas turned to her, crossing his arms. "Now, what is all of this really about?"
Chloe slumped against the wall.
"I don't know. I guess I expected to have more time to think about everything. Eli now knows we had sex and he asked me what you and I were and I had no idea what to tell him and then I ran into Matt and ended things for good but... I just don't know. I thought it was simple but it's not. It's all complicated and I hate the uncertainty."
"So now that you and Lieutenant Scott are no longer together you want us to define our relationship," he stated simply.
"Do we even have one?" Chloe asked pointedly. "I mean, we had sex and it was good but was it just a one-time thing or could this be something more?"
"What do you want it to be, Chloe?" he asked pointedly. "I already told you I wouldn't mind if this went on but if it doesn't..." he shrugged. "One good memory is still better than no memory at all."
"I want to give it a try," she admitted. "Not just for the physical part but also..." she sighed and looked to the side. "I laughed yesterday. Do you know how long has it been since I laughed?"
"I would guess a while."
"Right. A while. That's one way to put it," she muttered before she looked up from where she was staring at her shoes. "What are we going to do?"
"Small steps, Chloe. We don't have to make all the decisions now. For now we agree to give it a try without labeling things. We get along well and we're rather compatible, in several things. Let it be enough for now."
"Kinda like a 'friends with benefits' thing?" she suggested and Nicholas nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes, that could work. We can always adjust it later."
"Okay," she said. "So, I'll see you later tonight?"
"Earlier than that, I think. The results of the diagnostic of the power reserves data should be ready by then and your assistance would be welcome."
Chloe nodded and Nicholas straightened up and started walking down the corridor away from the bridge.
"Erm, Nicholas?" Chloe called out after him. "Aren't you going back to the bridge?"
"In a minute. I need a quick word with Eli first."
It took Chloe a minute to realize what he planned on doing and by then it was too late and he was gone from sight. Well, Eli had been standing up for himself more as of late and if, in this particular case, Nicholas suceeded in intimidating him into deleting the evidence of their indiscretion, Chloe wouldn't be particularly upset about it. Just the way it had been accomplished.
A/N 2: I'm ending it here for now. Next chapter should be smutty again. Also, I strongly dislike Scott but I don't believe in character bashing so I hope I didn't butcher him too much.