Call to Maia, early Friday morning (B5 time)

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova dragged herself out of CnC. It was almost deserted at this time of night and if anything came in before noon the next day they can bloody well float out there until she decided she had enough coffee.

There was one place she needed to go, though. Two weeks. It had flown by and she meant to write or call, honestly she had. Write or call someone. Fandom was now - quite literally - branded into her, thanks to Blair's go-out-with-a-bang.

So she took a stim, dragged herself down to the Starfury bay, and headed for the planet. Zathras was waiting for her in the control room of the Great Machine. She smiled tiredly at him and settled in, closing her eyes.

"Maia."

Comments

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia was laying on the bed, curled up in Susan's sweatshirt under the blankets. "Mmmmm." she replied slowly waking up. "Susan?" She said sleepily before opening her eyes a little, her hand gropping across the bed not finding the source of the voice. She lifted her head a little and saw Susan's at the foot of the bed and smiled. "Hi."

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova smiled, her holographic form circling the bed and leaning over, her hand reaching out as if to brush the hair away from her forehead. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Mmm" Maia's eyes shut, if she tried hard enough she could almost feel Susan's fingers. "No, no this is a nice way to wake up." She opened her eyes again and smiled. "How are you?" she said gazing up at her.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"Good," Ivanova replied honestly, moving so that it seemed that she was sitting on the bed, if one ignored how the blankets actually moved through her when Maia shifted on the bed. "Alright, I'm exhausted, but that's no surprise." She smiled at her. "You?"

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"I'm ok. I met a boy today who invited me to watch him fight." She said turning a little in the bed so she could focus totally on Susan's face. "You're exhausted and you still called." She smiled. "Can you sleep in that thing?"

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"Probably," Ivanova said dryly. "Considering Draal actually lives in this thing." She grinned, teasing. "Ooooh, you met a bo~oy," she singsonged. "Is he cute?"

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia laughed, "Susan!" She said shaking her head. "Certainly not as cute as you. He was nice though. Wanted to know if I knew how to fight. I think he wanted to fight me." She said still giggling at Susan's singsong voice.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova pretended to preen. "Of course he isn't as cute as me." Then her expression darkened. "He wants to fight you?" There was a little bit of a protective growl in her voice.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Not like in a mean way." She said quickly to reassure her, she felt her skin tingle at the protective growl in Susan's voice. "More like sparring or something." She stretched a little. Susan did look tired. "How is everything up there? Nothing bad going on is there?"

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova shook her head. "No, everything's fine. I've just been working for . . . oh god, it must have been almost fifteen straight hours. Corwin's sick, so I'm covering things for him, and it was one of our busy days."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Aw tell him I hope he gets better soon." She stared at Susan's figure in the hologram, it was so real. "They need to make those so you can just step out of them and into the place you want to go." Maia would have reached her hand out but it would have sunk through Susan's leg and onto the blankets. She'd prefer to push away the thought it was a hologram.

"Summer was to short." She said after a minute. She hadn't been sleeping well since Susan left. The last few nights had been really bad. Every thirty minutes or so waking up to the empty room, no familiar form sleeping next to her.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"I think that might just be a little too convenient," Ivanova laughed. "Can you imagine? It'd be like I never left!" She sobered a little bit, looking down. "It was. Far too short."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"One more year until I'm done." She said with a breathless sigh. "Go anywhere, do anything. Maybe we can do something next summer." If Maia thought to long on the past few months she would either cry or shutdown or both. She didn't want tears to blur their conversation or her image of Susan sitting and talking to her.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"Hey, yeah," Ivanova smiled. "What are you thinking of doing after grad, anyways? I know, it's a year away . . ."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Well college of course, next fall. But before that...I want to travel." She said with a smile. "We could go to the mountains and...we could climb one." She said in a sleepily excited voice.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova laughed again. "That is what one usually does on mountains. Climb them, I mean." She was quiet for a moment. "You know, there's this great mountain range out on the edge of Centauri space, big tourist resort, I should have a few weeks of vacation saved up . . ."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia smiled, "Now that is something most people can never say they've done. Climb a mountain in space." Maia said beaming now. The thought of a few weeks with Susan in the mountains... Maia's head spun happily

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"Well, most people around there, at least," Ivanova pointed out. She didn't need to be a empath or even a very bad telepath to follow Maia's train of thought and she felt a momentary stab of guilt. It wasn't that she didn't enojy spending time with Maia, but she always felt like she was leading her on when she suggested things like this.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia smiled at her "Well we're not like most people around here." She said in a soft voice.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"No we aren't." Ivanova let herself smile back softly for a long moment before shaking her head and looking away. "So how's school going?" she asked, swiftly changing the topic.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"It's ok I guess. I'm in a class about prophecy and stuff." She said picking at a piece of lint on the blanket. "It's alright. Aziraphale is teaching it." She said with a smile, "It's nice to have him back."

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I ever met him - officially, anyway. I seem to remember something about a flaming sword and zombies, but that's it." Ivanova smiled. "And what, exactly, is involved in 'and stuff'? Or is it teep stuff I don't want to know about."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Well..." Maia started slowly "I'm taking a class in being a spy actually."

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"A spy." Ivanova's voice was carefully neutral. She had Opinions about things like that. While she and Maia had never discussed their abilities, she knew that Maia had . . . talent. And more importantly, she knew that Ivanova was similarly talented and this was all beginning to get horribly familiar.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia nodded a little, "I don't know really what good it will do..." She said chewing on her lip. "It was...well it's something to take that actually sort of caters to what we're able to do you know."

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"'We'? I don't know -" Ivanova cut herself off abruptly, looking away. Damn holograms. Couldn't the Great Machine find some way to keep her from looking as uncomfortable as she felt?

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia sat up in the bed looking at her with a worried expression. She moved her head to face Susan's, her eyes wide with fear of having insulted her. "Susan..." She said quietly.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"I'm not -" Ivanova took a breath and looked her in the eye. "I am not telepathic, empathic, telekinetic, nothing," she said softly. "I am not part of a 'we'. Do you understand?" Her eyes begged Maia for it.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia's eyes downcast towards her hands, she nodded slowly not looking at her. "Yeah." She said very quietly, almost unheard. She swallowed hard and nodded again. "Yeah I understand." She said still staring down at her hands.

Susan had to be, how could she have felt Maia that way; she had to know it. She knew Susan felt it, heard her, she answered her...maybe she decided she didn't want to be that way for Maia, maybe she only wanted to be that way for someone else...

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Yep, just about the reaction she was expecting.

However, Ivanova was transmitting her words across a galaxy and a couple of centuries and she had absolutely no idea who could intercept it on the way. Now, to explain . . .

"Do you remember seeing anyone on the station, with black gloves and a badge on their shoulder?" She sketched out its location on her chest. "Like the Greek letter 'Psi'?"

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia nodded as she looked up now at her. "Yes, they said hello to me when I was shopping." She said tilting her head. "Why?"

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"They're the PsiCorps." The coldness in her voice and eyes was enough of an explanation of Ivanova's feelings about them. "Every human telepath, of any ability, has to join them. Or be thrown in jail. Or be killed." A silent question dangled on the end of that. If she was discovered . . . her life was literally over.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia swallowed, her eyes darting around the room as if she expected one to come out of the shadows. She nodded understanding, her heart felt like ice on her chest thinking how close she had been to one of those people. She stared into Susan's eyes, she then mouth the words 'I wont tell.'

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova nodded, a bare movement of her head, that could be interpreted as flicking a bit of hair out of her eyes.

"So," she said, in a tone a good deal more cheerful and full of forced lightness, "You have to be careful next time you're here. I don't want to have to toss another PsiCorp teep out a window."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia nodded, fear flickering in her eyes but her heart considerably lighter knowing why Susan had said all that she had.

"They...they couldn't do anything to me could they..." She swallowed, she had no doubt Susan would protect her but avoiding it all together was a positive factor when visiting the station. If she kept getting into trouble on the station Susan might not let her come back.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova shook her head emphatically. "They could damn well try, but I and everyone on Babylon 5 would put up one hell of a fight. The station is one of the few safe places for renegade telepaths in human space."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

"Why...why do they give telepaths those choices why can't they just leave them alone?" she said with a frown. She had dealt with threats since she returned from people who were afraid or didn't understand. It was very sad knowing that in the future it wasn't any different. "I mean...well they are telepaths too, why can't they just leave it be?"

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"Because telepaths are dangerous, a menace to society if allowed to use their abilities unchecked, so on and so forth . . ." Ivanova waved a hand, her expression twisting into a snarl. "Because my moth -" She shut up abruptly. "They just like sticking their noses in other people's business," she finished, giving the distinct impression that she wouldn't appreciate a continuation of this line of conversation.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Flags went up in front of Maia and she frowned while Susan talked. "I'm sorry." She said after a moment before dropping the subject. The last thing she wanted was an argument. "How's G'kar? Did he get my letter? He hasn't replied yet." Her voice matched the forced lightness that Susan's had held earlier.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"G'Kar is busy chasing skirts and irritating Londo, as usual," Ivanova said dryly. "In other words, having the time of his life. He mentioned your letter, but he's bad at replying to anything that doesn't resemble a Penthouse letter. I'll bug him about it for you."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia smiled, she was very fond of G'Kar, even if he did try to spy on Susan and Maia on more then one occasion. She didn't like Londo as much; she didn't trust him. "Hmm...maybe I should include a Penthouse the next time I send a letter. You know I saw one a couple months ago with a woman on the cover who looked just like you. I had to do a double take...well then I bought the damn thing because I missed you." Maia blushed slightly at her confession.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova's hand twitched on - through - the coverlet, not being raised to cup Maia's face or brush away her hair as she wanted to. "You know that you can call me anytime," she said, one corner of her mouth lifting in a fond smirk. "I'm just one hologram away."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia smiled at this. "I know." She said wishing it was more then a hologram. She wanted to feel Susan's hands, hold her and kiss her. "Would you stay with me?" She said quietly. "Just here in the room tonight?" She knew she couldn't touch her, knew the distance was to great between them for it to be real right now; but just having her presence in the room would be enough for now.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova chewed her lip. She was on the verge of sleep already and she still had to get back to the station . . .

"I . . . can't," she said reluctantly. "I shouldn't have taken the Starfury, I have to get it back to the station before the morning shift starts." She smiled softly. "And if I stay, I know I'm going to fall asleep."

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia nodded slowly, she wished Susan could just sleep in the hologram machine so she could lay down in the bed with her. "I guess it wouldn't be comfortable." She said with a sad smile. "Stay safe going back. It was really nice seeing you. Made my day...or night." She said with a soft laugh. So many times the words 'I love you Susan' reached the edge of her tongue but she never said them. She just let them lay there until later...much later.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

"I mean it," Ivanova said, her hands coming up anyways, hovering just around Maia's face. "Call me. Any time." She wanted to say how much she hated doing this to her, she wanted to say how sorry she was, but nothing she wanted to say could come out. "Goodnight," she said, and leaned forward as if to kiss her on the forehead.

[maias-notebook.livejournal.com]

Maia closed her eyes, she concentrated until she could 'feel Susan's hands and the soft kiss.' "Goodnight." She whispered, a soft smile playing on the edges of her lips. She kept her eyes closed and held onto the feeling as she laid back into the bed of Susan touching her face and kissing her forehead goodnight.

[suzotchka.livejournal.com]

Ivanova didn't move, and when Maia settled back, her hands moved through her face. Expression unreadable, Ivanova swallowed and the hologram vanished.

She almost fell out of the Great Machine, exhaustion swamping her.

"Coming with Zathras," a kind voice said. "Zathras make sure you are gettings home safe."