i: why not take the shorter way home.

[tender]

WHO: Derrica + Holden
WHAT: Just bros being pals.
WHEN: Timing (backdated, covering a span, etc.)
WHERE: Drakonis
NOTES:

It isn't difficult to divine what happened: Naomi Nagata is a regular presence in the infirmary, and then she's not. Derrica understands what that means. She doesn't need Holden to tell her in so many words.

But the absence had lingered in those first moments of Derrica on his doorstep, drawing him out. It's still there, in the way Derrica had linked their arms on the ferry, but Derrica hasn't nudged him to do anything more than—

"Madame de Cedoux recommended something outdoorsy," she is explaining, as they walk along the market stalls. "But I'm not sure exactly..."

A pause, a little shrug. She glances over to Holden, expression a little embarrassed.

"The first thing I thought of was fishing poles, but I don't know if that's what she was envisioning."

Comments

[acreage]

Time, is the thing.

In the early days after Eros, it was different. The magnitude of what he'd barely survived, and what he'd paid for that, was still slowly setting in. He'd looked so hard for a reason, trying to find it in justice (revenge), in destroying the protomolecule, in the next thing, or the next, even in the protomolecule itself. There had to be a reason why he had survived to need this constant monitoring, the implant, and 100,000 Belters had not, why Miller died a hero and he was still here.

It wasn't until the Ring gates opened that he'd started to realize that there wasn't one.

It wasn't until Ilus that he was able to help the last remnants of Eros find peace, that a lot of people would've died if not for the idiosyncratic way an alien organism reacted with his drugs. Which is something to hang onto, at least.

He responds to her question with his full attention, turning to meet her eyes.

"What is it?"

let's put a bow on this buddy

[tender]

"That you tell me if something strange happens, or if you feel unwell."

It's a small favor to ask of anyone who isn't James Holden. Derrica knows this.

Maybe she wouldn't be able to keep the illness at bay, or heal it, or do anything other than simply be present with him while he dealt with it. But if she can give Holden that small comfort—

He's a good man. He shouldn't have to carry this all on his own.

🎀🎀🎀

[acreage]

There's a smile that pulls at his mouth as he considers her, and the answer comes, maybe, surprisingly easily.

"I can promise that."

No, doing so wouldn't come easily to him. But he can hope that he never has to, now, and if he does — she deserves that much honesty from him.