Voyager

I sit in my room and stare out the window, where there is absolutely nothing going on. It's pitch blackness, but I'm so bored that I don't know what else to do.

Willow's reading a book and has been for the last three hours. She's so engrossed in it that when I asked her if she wanted to do anything, it took her literally two minutes to realize that I had said something. I also went to Flora and Kavya's room but they both volunteered to help out the medical center apparently. It made me wonder if the guards needed help catching criminals or something but then I realized that there hasn't been any major crimes on this ship. I didn't really feel like downgrading from profiling serial killers to profiling kids that accidentally stole a fork from the cafeteria.

Eventually, I get up and leave the room. I can only stare at outer space for so long before my eyes start to act weird. I go downstairs and wander around a little bit, saying hi to everyone that I knew. Wylie Martel waves at me from the water station and I say, "Hey, Wylie! How are you?" and walk over to him.

He shrugs and says, "I'm doing okay. Killer headache, though."

"I know the feeling," I nod. I lean in a little bit and say, "Oli has some really great painkillers on him. I don't know if Kevin does too or not, but if you need anything, I can always hit him up for you."

"He's like your personal drug dealer," Wylie chuckles. I laugh but shrug, it's kind of true. "I think I'll be okay though. I'm going up to see Kevin now, but thanks, Lizzie."

"Of course, Wylie," I beam at him.

I wander around some more. Lily and Oleksandra are sitting in the Main Hall but they look like they are on a double date; Lily with a girl she told me she liked, I think her name is Maria, and Oleksandra with a guy she looked at very dreamily. I smile at this image and keep walking.

"Lizzie!"

I look up and see Callahan waving at me from his solitary table in the cafeteria. I'm feeling very relieved to see him not with anyone at the moment, as selfish as that is.

"Oh, hi!" I exclaim a bit too excitedly, and join him.

"How's it going, Lizzie Lane?" he asks, smiling at me as he takes a sip of his water.

"I'm doing alright, Callahan West. What about you?"

"Same old, same old," he replies, shrugging. He's in his uniform again and I chuckle at the sight.

"Everyone's doing something tonight but I'm just wandering around, so bored," I say, taking a fry from his plate.

Callahan leans back in his seat and holds his arms open. "Um, we can hang out."

I raise my eyebrows. "Really? You don't wanna hang out with Flora? I can act like her, you know, we have the same face already."

Callahan rolls his eyes. "No. I wanna hang out with Lizzie. Also, that'd really fucking creep me out."

"Okay!" I exclaim, beaming at him.

"What would you want to do, Miss Lane?"

I shrug. "I'm not sure, but I think to start the night, I have to see where you work and see you in action. I just can't get over your cute little uniform."

"You're going to make me regret this," he says, unamused. "But fine, I can show you the illustrious engine room. Bill might be in there, that guy's quite a character."

I laugh and we get up. He throws his food away and I follow him through the Main Hall and towards an elevator I didn't realize only went downstairs, not upstairs. I've never been down here before, though I'm assuming nobody has except the people that work on the ship. I look around, taking it all in, even though it's just a dark, narrow hallway leading to the engine room.

"This is it," Callahan says, when we enter.

"Very cool," I say, looking around at all the engines. I've never once thought about going into engineering as a career. It was too technical and I'm also not a fan of calculus or any kind of math, really. "Do you like working here?"

He shrugs. "I get paid and that's all that matters."

"It really is."

I walk around and look at all the engines. "You know, Callahan," I say. "I"m not gonna lie, I definitely thought you would have ended up in a profession that was a bit more...out there."

"Yeah, well, the stuff that's out there doesn't make a lot of money," he chuckles.

"Ain't that the truth," I mutter. "But it's still pretty cool. I bet you're really good at it," I smile at him.

He smiles back but we hear footsteps somewhere, suddenly. I raise an eyebrow at Callahan; is that supposed to be Bill? Callahan nods, like he read my mind, and he gets a menacing look on his face. I know that look. He made that look when his aunt was visiting and he decided to swap her conditioner with shaving cream. I admit that I may have helped him that time.

He quietly comes over to me, behind an engine, and says in a low voice, "Okay, so on all the engines there's a little red knob on it. It doesn't do anything, I promise, but if you turn all of them clockwise, and I mean every single one of them, it'll set off this alarm to, I dunno, make sure we're paying attention or something, and it drives Bill nuts."

I give him a look. "Why would we do that?"

"Because Bill is a fucking prick," he answers, shrugging. I peer over at Bill and I recognize him as the guy Callahan threw broccoli at once. I look at Callahan, unamused. Are we really going to go back to old habits when we're both very much adults? He shrugs again and then steps away to the next engine, turning the red knob clockwise.

I give in. Old habits really do die hard, it seems. I turn the red knob on the engine right in front of me and I look over at Callahan, who's grinning at me like he just saw his favorite celebrity. I roll my eyes and go over to the next one and I keep going until we end up meeting at one. I look over to see Bill sitting at a desk and typing furiously into a computer; he hasn't noticed a thing.

"Why do you hate him so much?" I ask Callahan, quietly so Bill won't hear us.

"He thinks he's hot shit even though I have more experience than he does and I'm, like, ten years his junior," he explains, rolling his eyes. "You know, he's not sitting at that computer doing work? He's messaging his family members even though we were strictly told to only work on that computer. He thinks he's everyone's boss but he has the same job as the rest of us. He's a bloody tool."

I nod my head at him, turning the knob. "That's a valid reason, Callahan."

He grins at me and takes my hand, hurrying us both out of the room. Right as we step outside, a blaring alarm goes off and we hear Bill yelp. We cover our ears and see him through the crack in the door, frantically looking for the source of the alarm. I can't help but laugh; even by his face, Bill looks like a tool.

We both continue laughing as we hurry down the hall towards the elevator, hoping Bill won't come to the realization that someone else did this yet.

"That was fun, huh?" Callahan says to me when we get to the elevator. He pressed the main level button and I laugh, nodding my head.

"Pranking can never get old, it seems," I say. "I think I am a little deaf though."

"Yeah, those alarms are ridiculous."

We get to the Main Hall and sit down at an empty table by the waterfall.

"Do you do that often?" I ask.

"Every chance I get. He really is a prick," Callahan nods.

"You know, Flora isn't much of a prankster," I say, propping my elbow up on the desk and resting my chin against my hand. "She's very serious. I mean, she loves having a good laugh, but pranking is definitely something she's disapproving of. She thinks it's childish. You might have to work on that for her sake."

"Oh, my God," Callahan mutters. "You're still on this? I say one thing about your sister and all of a sudden, you're planning our bloody wedding."

"Yeah, well, she–" I start but stop myself. I was about to tell him Flora needs someone after I'm gone but I haven't told Callahan about my cancer. I think having Willow know is good enough for a very long time. I shrug and say, "I just think you two could be good together."

"I don't need a matchmaker, Lizzie," Callahan smiles.

"Okay."

"I'm serious..."

"I said okay!" I exclaim, chuckling. He rolls his eyes, probably already knowing that I'm not going to give up on this. I beam at him.

I'm not surprised at all at how easily Callahan and I get along. We were the first two to become friends first anyway before Flora and Nadine were brought into the picture. I was outside, playing with the neighbor's dog, when Callahan and his family were moving in. He saw me and left all of his duties to say hi. I looked up at the shaggy-haired kid and greeted him back and said, "You wanna pet, Muffin? He really likes to be pet."

We sat there for ages just petting Muffin while his family struggled to bring all their boxes inside. Eventually, his dad yelled at him and Callahan said he would be back later. I didn't realize he meant by my window late at night. He climbed up a tree and knocked on it until I opened it and let him in. Then I offered him some Oreos and we sat in my room, eating and talking about dogs and Ireland and anything else we could think of. I was only nine then and Callahan was ten.

It's probably why I'm wondering when we'll hang out like this again, just the two of us. It's just really easy with us.

"I should probably change out of my uniform and act like I haven't been anywhere near the engine room since I got off. I guarantee you I'm on the top of Bill's suspect list," Callahan says, standing up.

I nod my head and stand up too. "Yeah, even though he has no idea who I am, I'm gonna pretend like I've been in my room all night."

"Good plan," Callahan chuckles. "Goodnight, Lizzie."

I watch him go for a second before saying, "Goodnight, Callahan."