"It's good that you're back," Mira said smiling her eyes softening just a little, "But a letter or two would have been nice," she stated grumpily.

"Sorry, I was just busy, you know how I am with keeping in contact," Tomas said smiling himself as Mira hugged him again.

"Mmmm you still smell good," she mentioned and grinned good naturedly as she took his hand, "So tell me everything, meet any girls?  Seduce the natives?  Come on Tom spill, you know how I love a good story!"

"Well I didn't really do much but work, I just needed to get away," Tomas said looking thoughtful.

"Phaw, you never do anything exciting," Mira grumbled pulling Tomas out of the galley.

"Hey were are we going anyway?" Tomas asked.

"Well, that's a surprise," Mira said practically dancing as they neared the briefing room.

Tomas raised an eyebrow, "Mira you didn't!"

"I'm staying silent, besides I got word from a friend of mine you were coming back and we had to do something, after all you're a Viper, you're family," she said about to open the door to the briefing room.

"Mira," Tomas said pulling her back and looking her in the eyes.

"Yes?"

"You're a nerd, but thanks," Tomas chuckled seeming to change what he wanted to say.  They walked into the briefing room arms linked, there the Viper Squad was waiting for him, welcoming Tomas back onto the squad.

"Bram! You made it back in time!" Mira shouted cheerfully running up to the blond, blue eyed Squad leader as he walked into the room holding a cake.  She threw her arms around him, her large green eyes twinkling, "I thought you weren't coming back for a few more days!"

"Easy Mira, I have cake in my hands," Ibram replied chuckling keeping the cake from being squished, "I pulled some favors to come back early to see Tomas," he said.

"Just Tomas?" Mira pouted.

"Don't be a drama queen Mira," Ibram replied calmly before wiping some icing on her nose making her giggle and run to get a napkin.

"Hey, welcome back," Ibram said to Tomas as he put the cake down.

"Thanks," Tomas replied looking past Ibram to where Mira was furiously wiping her nose, "for a lot."

The kiss was nice, Mira had to admit that Tomas when he was in the mood was one of the most passionate kissers she had ever, well, kissed.  And she was a sucker for a good long makeout session.  She couldn't help but melt against Tomas a little as he kissed, it had been a while.  Funny thing was she didn't get the tingly, feel good, toe curling reaction that she usually got when she was kissed.  With good reason, her childhood crush on Tomas had been just that a crush.

"Tom, stop," Mira murmured gently touching his lips with her hand to keep him from kissing her again.

"What?" Tomas asked looking confused.

"I'm sticky, I want to wash my face," she said bluntly, slipping out from under Tomas' arms and heading to the sink.

"Aren't you glad I'm back?" Tomas aske following her to the bathroom when she began to wash her face.

"Of course."

"You aren't mad?"

"Well considering you left without a word or note, never answered my calls or messages, and was doing who knows what," Mira said drying off her face and looking at Tomas, "No not really, I was at first and then I moved on."

"Oh, that's good then," Tomas said grinning, his brown eyes twinkling a little making Mira smile. "so what have you been up to?'

"Honestly?" Mira said and Tomas nodded, "BramandIsortofkindhavethisthinggoingIwantedtotellyoubutyouweregoneandwhatwasagirltodo?Hemakesmeallsquishyontheinsidejustbylookingatme.  you understand right?" Mira said all in one breath.

"Tom?' Mira asked as Tomas' eyes seemed to darken as he left the room, he was halfway down the hall before she was out the door herself, "Tom?  Tomas where are you going?" she asked, no answer, Mira took off after Tomas.  She limp ran after him, his stride even just walking was much longer then her own, making her catching up to him impossible.

"Tom don't!" she shouted at Tomas as he entered the briefing room.  By the time she got to the door, it was too late.

"You bastard, I trusted you!" Tomas screamed punching Ibram square in the face.  Ibram was taken off guard and stumbled backwards holding his nose.  Tomas then grappled with him, slamming him into the table, knocking the cake to the floor.  Holding Ibram to the table with his weight, Tomas proceeded to punching him wherever their was an opening.

"Tomas stop it," Mira screamed hysterically grabbing onto Tomas' arm to keep him from punching Ibram, "You're hurting him!" she cried, as she was practically lifted off the ground as Tomas tried to punch Ibram again.  "Stop!  Tom please stop!"  Tears streamed down Mira's face as she managed to squeeze herself between Tomas and Ibram.

"Why?  Why should I?  Look at what he did, to us," Tomas demanded getting close to Mira's face making her wince and try to pull away. 

She looked at Tomas with steady, hating eyes, "No look at what you did, you picked up without a word to anyone, left the squad, left us, left me.  And you expected things to be hunky dory when you came back.  You treated us all like crap doing that Tomas!"  Mira growled, her eyes softening as Ibram groaned from behind her.  "And look at you now," she added pointing to his bloody fist.

"I, I," Tomas shook his head before turning around and leaving.

"Come on pretty boy, lets get you to medical," Mira sighed slinging Ibram's arm over her shoulder.

"You have to leave again?" Mira asked Ibram as she watched him pack a few essentials.

"Just for a few days, seems a few decisions that we made at the last one fell through and now the higher ups have to go over them again.  Mostly budget for squads and whatnot," Ibram said zipping up his duffelbag.

"Even with a mushed up face they're making you go?" Mira sighed rolling her eyes.

Ibram winced a little before smile, "Even with a mushed up face, they didn't give me SIQ so I have to go.  Though I have to admit I didn't know Tomas had it in him to punch me."

"If you had known would you have kept yourself from me?" Mira asked picking that the blnaket at the bed.

"You kidding, wild Banthas couldn't keep me away from you Mira, you know that," Ibram chuckled leaning down and kissing Mira square on the lips.  "I got to go and catch the shuttle."

"I know, bring me back something!" Mira said throwing her arms around Ibram kissing him hard on the lips, getting a fill of his taste to last her until he came back.

"You know I will, someone has to supply you with your knickknacks," Ibram chuckled, his nose nestling in Mira's hair for a moment before he turned and left.  Then he promptly came back, grabbed Mira around the waist, picking her off the bed and kissing her one more time, once more, one more time, before letting her go.

"Get going pretty boy," Mira laughed shooing Ibram out the door.  Once Ibram was out of sight, Mira settled down to bed.  She fell asleep quickly, only to wake up a few hours later.  A thin line of sweat trickled down her face as she recalled the dream, fire, hot, burning fire was all ash remembered.  Her leg ached dully, she shivered closing her eyes only to see the fire again.  She was use to the dreams, usually she curled up next to Ibram for comfort, but Ibram wasn't there so Mira settled for the next best thing.

"Tomas move your ass over," Mira grumbled crawling into Tomas' bed, "Geez you giant you take up the entire space!"

Ibram trudged grumpily through the door, trying to fend off the sleepy haze that kept trying to get him to close his eyes. It was well into the early hours of the morning, and Ibram cursed the stars that he couldn’t have a lie in – after all, it was the High Commands fault that he was up this late.

Dumping his bags in the middle of the room, he collapsed onto the bed as he remembered the scene when he had landed on Abrea.

“I’m sorry gentlemen,” The young lieutenant had said. “The meeting has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. You are to return to your units immediately and await further instructions.”

Ibram was not pleased.

But I’ve just come from the Atrus, it’s going to take me ages to get back!

He had told the Lieutenant as much, but he had just shrugged him off.

“Those are your orders Warrant Officer.”

Ibram had to wait around for an hour before he managed to hitch a ride on a supply vessel that was heading to the fleet. It was an old vessel though, part of the 6th Auxiliary fleet, a relatively new creation comprised of commandeered and re-activated ships.

The fact that the trip was slow going wasn’t the worst part though. Ibram had decidedly quite definitely after he had had to re-possess his bag for the tenth time that trip that the kleptomaniac crew were the worst part. And they smelt.

Ibram started to drift off to sleep, rolling over to give a certain someone a sleepy hug, and it was only then that he realised that Mira wasn’t in the bed.

I wonder where she’s got too…

The past week had actually been quite peaceful, compared to what Ibram’s life usually was like. In the aftermath of the Epsilon Crises, Mira and Ibram had spent a lot of time together, and could almost be called a couple. Almost.

Ibram had long accepted that Mira would never be truly tied down to one man, but he also knew that didn’t mean what most people assumed it would. Mira was Mira, and she would do as she pleased, when she pleased. But in the right situation, she would stay faithful.

Sitting back up, he decided that he would try and track her down anyway. He knew she sometimes had nightmares, so she was probably off wondering about somewhere.

He managed to look in the mirror on the way out. His face was still swollen, and his right eye was black, but he was on the mend. He made a mental note to kill Tomas next time he saw him.

Ibram walked slowly through the halls of the Atrus. All was quiet, although he sometimes saw the odd nightshift personnel walking about, doing their tasks. He turned the corner to head towards the Squadron’s assigned mess area, and bumped into Tomas heading in the same direction, but from the direction of his own quarters.

There was a long silence as the two men stared at each other, neither daring to move nor say anything. Eventually, it was Thomas who said something:

“How’s the face?”

Ibram nearly flipped at that, but then he remembered how Mira had re-acted when Tom flipped. So instead, he simply said:

“…better, thanks you.”

Tomas blinked, as if he had been expecting something worse.

“Thought you were away on some sort of logistic meeting?”

“They cancelled on me. Told me to come straight back.”

“If it makes you feel any better, they did it to me a couple of times too.”

“It doesn’t, but the gesture has been noted.”

“Look Ibram, I didn’t mean to smash your face in, but you have to understand-“

Ibram cut him off.

“No Chief, I don’t have to understand anything. Viper Squadron is under my command now – you can’t just leave and then waltz back in a few months later and expect everything to return to normal.”

Tomas looked own at the floor, but Ibram wasn’t finished.

“And I’m not going to apologise to Mira either. She doted on you, and then you up and leave her hanging in the wind. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake. I haven’t felt the way I do about her since my deceased fiancé, and I’m not about to let that go.”

Ibram knew he could say more, but he would leave it at that. He couldn’t afford to give in to his emotions at a time like this.

“I’m sorry skipper, I really am, but you need to move on.”

Ibram walked past him, and headed down the corridor that Tomas had just emerged from.

“Where are you going?” He asked.

“To your quarters, I suspect my girlfriend is in need of some comforting right about now.”

“How do you know she’s there?”

“Because you aren’t.”

Ibram stalked off, his mood threatening to over take him, but then he remembered who he was looking for, and all of sudden things didn’t seem as bad anymore…

Tomas sighed as he stood alone in the hallway. The thought of Ibram now on his way to see Mira caused his blood to boil, but there was no longer anything he could do. He had told Mira everything he had wanted to say, and frankly he had nothing to say to Ibram. Instead, he took a deep breath in attempt to calm himself and headed in the direction of mess ... where he had been heading in the first place.

Grabbing a water when he arrived, Tomas sat down at one of the tables alone with his thoughts. Sure, they still had several days before their next scheduled mission and a nice alcoholic drink would drown out some of the pain he was feeling now, but it would only hurt all that much more in the morning. That, and right now he felt he really needed his mind clear right now if he had any hope of collecting his thoughts.

Frankly, Tomas wondered why he was still even aboard this ship. There were only two people here that he had actually come back for; Mira, because of how much he like her and Ibram, because he had become a very good friend over their time in Viper. Now ... mere hours after his return that had all been turned upside down. He felt completely and utterly betrayed, and questioned whether he could possibly serve beside them in the field of battle. It had taken a month ... LESS than a month for all of this to go down, and he really couldn't believe it.

At some point, Tomas became lost in thoughts ... staring off into space as he replayed the last several hours over in his head. The sound of the mess hall door opening shook him back to reality, as did the person that walked through it.

"Tomas! There you are! I've been looking all over you," Mira exclaimed as she spotted him. She wanted something, Tomas was sure of it. She had that scheming look on her face that he knew all too well.

"Hell no," he stated matter of factly before standing and walking out the mess' other door without another word.