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Assistant: Title: I Would Bring You the Stars and the Moon
        Author: GutterWitch GutterWitch 
        Chapter: 6/9 
        Summary: “Houston, do you copy?”Caitlyn panicked, feeling extraordinarily unprepared having been thrust into her new position without so much as even a handbook to consult. What were the formalities? What was she supposed to respond with? Where was the d@mn push to talk button…“Hellooo? I said Houston, do you copy?”Caitlyn fiddled with her headset, having finally found the green button on the side and hastily letting out a rather breathless reply. “Um, yes. Hello? This is Houston. I copy.”There was a long pause in which Caitlyn sat twiddling her thumbs, anxiety pushing the frantic pulse of her heartbeat through her eardrums. Was that wrong? Did she already f@ck up? She took a steady deep breath, finger hovering over the talk button until the familiar voice of the astronaut came through her headset once more.“D@mn, Houston. I didn’t expect you to sound so sexy.”ORCaitlyn has been assigned as the personal capcom to one of the astronauts currently on a year long expedition at the international space station. Cue long months of pining and desperate longing.
        Contents: Chapter 6: Breathless
    

    

        
          
          
            “Vi… come back. Please…”
          
        

      
        
          Heya, remember at the beginning of this fic where I said there would be a lot of fun and accurate space sh@t in here but also to suspend your disbelief a little bit? I’m gonna need you all to lock into that for this chapter. If you can enjoy pretty much any space media today you can look past some of my inaccuracies for the sake of L.O.L space lesbians. Just turn your brain off and enjoy the drama.Playlist for this fic  here See ya. <3
            
            (See the end of the chapter for  more notes.)
            
      
  

  
  
    
    
  Time Elapsed: 231 DaysTime Remaining: 134 Days
 Caitlyn sprang into action immediately. She slid open the screen of her bunk and practically rolled out of it, shooting straight up and frantically glancing around the room in her panic. Mylo and Claggor were already up, Mylo standing frozen with his chest heaving while Claggor was speedily typing away bent over his desk.Neither made any attempt for an exit, because this wasn’t the alarm for a fire in the comms building. It was an alarm for the space station.Vander’s office door banged open, startling Caitlyn as he made his way down the steps and toward the center of the comms room. The man looked- sh@t, he looked terrified.Caitlyn didn’t waste any time in retrieving the headset from her bunk and sliding it over her ears, hardly a second in between her finger pressing against the green talk button and the sound of her hurried voice.“ISS do you copy?”“Heya cupcake.” Vi sounded irrationally calm for someone in an emergency situation.“I’m broadcasting our conversation. What’s going on?” Caitlyn was significantly less calm, her fingers shaking against the keyboard as she pressed the necessary buttons.Vi’s voice began to filter through the speakers at the front of the room. “A nearby Russian satellite broke, we’re not quite sure how but there’s a fair amount of debris coming at us. We sustained some hull damage.”“Instruct them to shelter immediately.” Vander said, hunched over a computer to pull up the spacecraft's live diagnostics on the projector screen. Caitlyn nodded once and relayed the message.“No can do, chief. Hull damage is significant enough that our O2 levels are dropping. We gotta go out and patch it before the hole gets bigger.”Caitlyn’s heart dropped into her stomach. “While the debris is hurtling toward you?”“Yep. Ekko and I are suiting up now. Already completed pre-breathing. Loris and Sky are helping us out and then Sky is going to shelter. Loris will stay on standby to get us back in.”Caitlyn clicked off her microphone and turned to the chief. “This can’t be the proper protocol.”“It is.” Vander had the most intense expression Caitlyn had seen on him yet. The man was clearly torn between his duty as the flight commander of this expedition and his role as a father. It was heartbreaking for Caitlyn to see the genuine fear in his eyes. “If they lose their O2, everyone on board could perish. This is… the best path for minimal casualties.“Minimal. Not no casualties. Minimal.“Mylo, go call Powder. She should know what’s going on.”Caitlyn looked to the two boys, her heart sinking further at their forlorn expressions. Mylo nodded and made his way out of the room, tears threatening his waterline.“Claggor, you better monitor the hell out of ETHOS. Constantly relay their O2 levels to us.”“Okay.” Claggor inhaled deeply and turned back to his monitor, making quick work of clicking around his desktop.“Caitlyn.”The two locked eyes, panic and bile rising in Caitlyn’s throat.“Stay calm. They’ll be alright. We have to believe that.” He offered a smile that didn’t touch his eyes in the slightest. “Talk to her. Keep her calm. I’m not asking as your boss… but as her father. Please.”“Beginning depressurization.” Vi called out.The alarm had long stopped, but there was still a roar of adrenaline in Caitlyn’s ears. It went against her every instinct to remain standing when all she wanted to do was crumple into a ball and hide away. Still, as she stood there locked in to eye contact with Vander, she found herself motivated by his own resolve. There was real, palpable fear in his eyes and yet he stood firm. Caitlyn needed to find the same strength, the same determination.For Vi.Caitlyn focused on the push and pull of her own breath as she yanked open the top drawer of her desk and retrieved the small monitor Powder had given her. She flipped it on and propped it up against her desk, waiting until it was fully booted up and she could see Vi’s point of view before proceeding.She clicked the button on the side of her headset once more. “Vi.”“Yeah?”Caitlyn swallowed past the lump in her throat, bracing her knuckles at the edge of her desk and scr@w@ng her eyes shut. She knew the rest of the room was listening but frankly did not care in the slightest. “Do you remember what I promised you?”Vi breathed in deeply, the sound picking up static from inside her space suit. “That you’d be there when I got back.”“Yes.” Caitlyn’s heart was thundering. It was a wonder she was still standing, but she had to. She needed to stand strong, keep her feet firmly planted. “So you better make it back, Violet. I swear to god-”“I’m coming back, Cait.“ Despite the situation, Caitlyn could hear a bit of fondness, a soft smile in Vi’s voice. “I still gotta see what you look like, after all.”A hysteric bubble of laughter slipped out of Caitlyn. She clapped her hand over her lips, only then noticing the moisture spilling down her cheeks and hurriedly wiping at it with the back of her hand. “Well now I- now I really have a lot to live up to. Don’t I?”“Well, yeah. If I’m gonna survive a near death experience you better have one rocking bod.”“Oh my god shut up.”The two laughed albeit anxiously. Caitlyn could feel a tiny bit of tension leave the room. She noticed Claggor’s tiny smile and Vander’s shoulders losing some of their stiffness. Caitlyn too felt she could actually breathe for a moment.Then Vander’s office door flew open once more and Powder entered the room in her pink bunny pajama set at a swift pace with Mylo in tow. She glanced up at the projector screen with a panicked look in her eyes and the static tense climate returned in full force like a gust of wind.“Bringing up the outside camera feed.” Claggor said. The feed then popped up in a window on the projector screen and Caitlyn gasped. There were tons of varying pieces of debris floating around the station. Most of it was stagnant, drifting around slowly. Some larger pieces banged against one another, spinning out of control and away from the station. It was worse than Caitlyn imagined. A hornet’s nest of large metal pieces and insulation.“Depressurization complete. Waiting on your word to open the hatch, chief.” Vi said through the speakers.“What the hell are they doing?!” Powder called out, glancing around the room as if they were all out of their minds. “Why aren’t they sheltering?”Claggor pushed his glasses up his nose. “O2 level is at two hundred eighty nine decimal two and dropping.”Caitlyn closed her eyes, envisioning the mathematical formulas to calculate flow rate in her mind. “The alarm began about fifteen minutes ago. If their O2 is at two hundred eighty nine point two kilograms, that would mean they are leaking approximately twelve grams of oxygen per second. Given this and taking depressurization into account, they have a little under two hours to find the hole and it should be no bigger than the size of a quarter.”She opened her eyes to find everyone in the room was staring at her incredulously. Claggor blinked and looked back to his computer, typing in some quick calculations before nodding toward Vander. “She’s right.”“That was so hot.” Vi murmured.Caitlyn was convinced Vi could be thrown into an active volcano and still find time to flirt. “Focus, please.”“Right.” Vi relayed the information Caitlyn had provided to Ekko before addressing her once more. “We good to open the hatch?”Caitlyn turned to Vander, failing to keep the pain and anxiety from her features. The man ran his large fingers through his slicked back hair and sighed. After a quick glance at the monitor indicating the air lock had been properly depressurized, he nodded toward Caitlyn.“Dad, you can’t let them go out there.” Powder’s voice sounded absolutely broken, a vulnerability laced into its normal raspiness. “At their current orbit the velocity of any space debris coming at them could kill them.”“We don’t have a choice, Powder.” There was so much kindness and understanding to Vander’s tone. Caitlyn couldn’t believe she ever thought this man to be scary when in reality he was so kind, harboring the most comforting presence she’d ever known in a person. “The likelihood of debris hitting them is slim, you know that.”“I know but it could still happen!” Powder wrapped her arms around herself, her voice and breath becoming increasingly panicked. “I can’t lose either of them, I can’t lose both of them-”“Houston? What’s going on?” Vi asked.Powder’s tearful gaze whipped around and landed on Caitlyn. There was a deep, pleading look in her watery eyes. It broke something in Caitlyn, but also awakened something. A newfound determination and strength rooted in the desire to protect this family.Caitlyn offered Powder a kind smile before schooling her expression into one of fierce focus and speaking into the mic. “Listen to me, Violet. There’s a practical minefield of debris floating around the station. The turn radius of your suits are sh@t, so I’m going to be monitoring the outside camera and directing you as best I can. You and Ekko need to watch each other’s six’. Stick back to back and close to the handrails. Do not touch any of the debris if you can avoid it, there’s no way to calculate the trajectory of those larger pieces if they were to bump into one another and spin out of control. Standby for my command to open the hatch, copy?”It was eerily quiet for a moment while they awaited Vi’s response. Caitlyn’s gaze found Powder’s once more. There was no longer an overwhelming panic in her eyes, moreso shock and a bit of acceptance. She swallowed and wiped at her wet cheeks, mouthing a small “thank you” at Caitlyn with a soft nod. It was a small gesture, but one of trust and gratitude nonetheless.“Copy.” Vi said. She relayed to Ekko once more. Caitlyn sucked in a nervous breath through her teeth, turning her full attention to the outside camera feed.After about a minute or so, she deemed the area around the hatch clear enough, ignored her instincts screaming at her not to let them go out there, and gave the command. “Engage the EV hatch.”“On it.” Vi grunted with the effort of slowly opening the hatch. Every eye in the room was glued intently to the surveillance feed as the metal door opened. Vi was the first out of the station, sticking closely to the hull of the ship as she extended her gloved hand to Ekko to pull him out.Powder turned on her heel and made her way over to Scar’s comm station. She swiftly booted up his computer and pressed various keys at an alarming speed. “I’m opening up comms so we can hear and communicate with Ekko, too.”“How the hell are we going to find a hole the size of a quarter in two hours?” Ekko’s voice came through the speakers. Caitlyn hadn’t ever heard him speak before. He sounded so young…“Look for where the damage to the hull is the most significant and start there.” Caitlyn replied, forcing down her anxieties. “You’ll just have to patch as you go until the O2 stops dropping. Then we can assume you’ll have fixed the leak.”“Oh, you must be Caitlyn.”Caitlyn smiled for a second, wishing her and Ekko could have met under far better circumstances. “I’m afraid pleasantries will have to wait, but yes. Do you guys see any damage?”“Not much on the starboard side.” Vi replied. “We’ll have to make our way around.”“Can barely see sh@t out here.” Ekko mumbled.“I’ll be your eyes as much as I can.” Caitlyn reassured them, watching intently as the two slid along the hand rails. A large metal sheet caught her eye in the bottom right corner of the screen. She squinted at it, watching the angle and speed at which it was moving toward them.“Stop.”The two astronauts froze. Seconds later, the sheet collided right into the handrail mere feet away from Vi before rotating slightly and floating downward away from them.“Sh@t.” Ekko breathed out. Caitlyn could hear Powder let out a worried squeak from somewhere to her left. It was painful to hear but as much as she wished to comfort Vi’s sister, she needed to maintain her focus.“Proceed, you’re clear for now.”Vi breathed out slowly before continuing her path toward the port side of the station, Ekko closely in tow but turned at an angle to watch her back. You could cut the tension in the comms room with a knife, however Caitlyn had completely dissociated herself from it. Her eyes darted around the screen, assessing all nearby pieces of debris and their likelihood of affecting Vi and Ekko’s venture as they went.It continued on like that for a while. The rigid atmosphere and air of anxiety never dulled for a moment and Caitlyn remained locked-in. She barely registered Vander asking Powder if she wanted to hop onto Ekko’s comms, Powder shaking her head and declaring she didn’t want to distract them and she trusted Caitlyn to handle it.After about half an hour of continuous monitoring, occasionally checking in on Vi’s POV on her handheld monitor, and calling out varying instructions to the astronauts, Caitlyn spotted something.“Vi, look at your two o’clock, what is that?”They were on the port side of the station moving up toward the bow at this point. Vi turned toward the direction Caitlyn had indicated and there sticking off the ship was a piece of the metal exterior nearly ripped off from the hull.“That’s gotta be it.” Ekko said, sounding slightly winded.“Good eye, cupcake.”Some tension that Caitlyn hadn’t realized she was grasping onto released from her shoulders. They found the damage. Now they just needed to patch it and get back inside. Halfway there. Sort of.Vi hooked her carabiner into the handrail, Ekko following suit so the two could make their way up toward the damage. As if sensing Caitlyn’s momentary relief, two metal clusters of debris smacked into one another directly to their left, sending one hurtling toward them.Caitlyn gasped. “Hit the deck, now!”“Sh@t.” Vi hissed out, gripping the front of Ekko’s suit and hauling him in front of her. A gust of compressed nitrogen shot out from the back of her SAFER pack, pressing the two firmly against the hull of the ship just in time for the debris to miss where their heads had been moments prior.“Holy sh@t.” Mylo whispered, fisting at his spiky hair. Powder began quietly sobbing in the corner.“We’re good.” Vi breathed out, releasing Ekko so the two could continue their crawl up toward the damaged section of the station.Caitlyn hadn’t realized she had been holding her breath until it burst out of her. A shiver wracked through her body which she rubbed at her upper arms in response to but otherwise disregarded.“Okay, we’ve reached the damage. Gonna start patching it up now.” Vi unclipped the patch kit from her belt, Ekko flipped in the opposite direction to keep an eye out for any danger.“Claggor, how’s O2 looking?” Vander asked.“It’s currently at around two twenty.” There was a slight tremor in Claggors voice. Sh@t, why did this entire room have to be made up of Vi’s family? It was cruel for them to have to endure this sort of situation. Especially when there was practically nothing for them to do but watch.Vander hummed in acknowledgment. “Keep an eye on it and relay to us if it goes steady. Caitlyn-” For the first time since Vi and Ekko left the hatch, Caitlyn turned her attention away from the screen toward Vander. She blinked hard a few times, her eyes having dried out staring at the monitors for so long. “Take a deep breath. You’re doing great.”Caitlyn did just that. She took a moment to steady herself while Vi worked to seal the metal hull together. Patch kits usually worked with a combination of epoxy soaked gauze or high tech tape. Vi was currently using the former to seal up the tear, working as focused and as swiftly as she could in zero gravity. The debris around them was stagnant for now, but Caitlyn was still on edge knowing full well that could change in a second’s time.“How are you doing, Vi?” She couldn’t help but ask, the nerves clawing at her from the inside out.Vi chuckled nervously. “I’d make a comment about you doubting my ability to handle wet things, but my father is listening, so.”Vander sighed and pinched at the bridge of his nose. Caitlyn sucked her bottom lip under her gapped teeth, trying to hold back an inappropriate smile in this ridiculous situation.“You really wanna die a pervert, Vi?” Ekko shot at her.“You know me, little man. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”The two laughed softly over the line and Caitlyn could hear Powder snort disbelievingly from where she was curled up in a rolling chair now in the middle of the comms room with a blanket over her shoulders. “Idiots.” She grumbled. Caitlyn couldn’t help but agree.“I’m almost done here. Just gotta lay down one or two more strips and that should do it.”“Okay.” Caitlyn exhaled, shifting her gaze from the handheld monitor to the outside cam. Things remained steady at the moment and yet that same fear and pulse of adrenaline coursed its way through Caitlyn in a steady beat. She wouldn’t relax until Vi and Ekko were safely sheltered.“Done. How’s O2?”“Claggor?” Vander pressed. Claggor squinted at his screen for a moment and held up a finger indicating for them to wait. After a solid minute or two of monitoring, he sighed with relief and grinned toward Vander.“It’s stable. They got it.”“Oh thank f@ck.” Mylo let out, collapsing into his own chair.Caitlyn smiled wide, her heart rate spiking in a momentary lapse of joy. “You got it, Vi. O2 is stable. Get back to the EV hatch post haste.”“Copy, heading back.”“Man, I never want to do this sh@t again.” Ekko grumbled as the two began to pull themselves back toward the hand rails via their tethers.“It’s kind of part of the job there little man.” Vi teased.“Screw that. You think Jericho is hiring?”The two laughed and for just a fleeting moment, Caitlyn was feeling as though they were almost out of the woods. That they had successfully accomplished what they set out to do and could make it back without a hitch. She really believed so.That moment was shattered as the largest cluster of debris Caitlyn had seen yet came seemingly out of nowhere and smacked into one of the solar arrays jutting out from the station, knocking several of the panels loose and launching them along with pieces of the metal framework toward Vi and Ekko.“Lookout!” Caitlyn shouted, frenetically looking from piece to piece as they fell. There were too many of them. She couldn’t calculate where each would land as they smacked into one another, their trajectory all over the place.One of the panels smacked into Ekko hard, knocking him off the hull of the space station and out toward the darkness. Caitlyn gasped. Powder screamed.“Sh@t, Ekko!” Vi called out, her voice crackling slightly over the line.Ekko wasn’t responding. Had he lost consciousness? No, Caitlyn could see him moving still on the monitor. It could be a communications error, or simply that the man was too panicked to speak. The suit diagnostics on the screen showed no signs of breach, so physically he was most likely fine.Caitlyn could feel her own panic rising higher and higher within her. Like water about to burst from a dam. She shook her head and pleaded with reason in her mind. Ekko would be fine so long as his suit wasn’t punctured nor his helmet cracked. He would be fine so long as his tether remained intact.More debris ricocheted off the edge of the space station, hurling itself in multiple directions. A sharp broken piece of the metal framework spiralled toward the handrail.It severed Ekko’s tether, releasing him freely toward the vast emptiness around them.“EKKO!” Vi unhooked her carabiner without a second’s hesitation, planting her feet firmly against the surface of the space station.“No-” Caitlyn gasped.Caitlyn’s heart felt as though it was going to burst from her chest, breath caught in her throat while she watched the woman she had fallen for over the last four months relinquish her line of safety to push herself off into a field of debris filled space in the direction Ekko had gone.There was a ringing in Caitlyn’s ears, an empty white noise that was all consuming and debilitating. She could hear nothing but the sound of Vi’s breathing, do nothing but stand and watch Vi drift further and further away until her breath crackled away and she was completely out of the camera’s view. Caitlyn looked down to her handheld monitor, but it was simply nothing but grey static.“Vi…” Caitlyn couldn’t even hear her own voice, but she could feel how broken it was. “Vi… come back. Please…”“Cai-” There was nothing but crackling on Vi’s end. Caitlyn couldn’t see Vi. Couldn’t hear her. Couldn’t feel the Earth under her own feet. There was nothing but an emptiness consuming every fiber of her being.Suddenly, Caitlyn’s dream came flooding back to her. The feeling of Vi sinking into darkness, completely out of Caitlyn’s reach. Watching her disappear, leaving Caitlyn helpless with a hollowness in her gut unparalleled by any black hole in the universe. That’s what this was. Only this time, it was no dream.Caitlyn wasn’t sure how long she stood in shock, unblinking at the projector screen. Nothing felt real, not the skin on her bones nor the very breath caught in her lungs. Time had slowed to a staggering halt and nothing else mattered except for the pleading voice on loop within her heart.
  Please come back.

  Please.

  I haven’t even told you yet.

  I haven’t told you how much I-
Vi came back into frame, Ekko firmly in her grasp and spurts of nitrogen fizzling out around her. Her voice crackled back to life over the speaker, popping in and out sporadically with syllables they couldn’t make out.“The SAFER is failing.” Vander said, his voice shaking with fear. It shocked Caitlyn out of her stupor like an ice bath. She shook her head and let a gasped breath slip from her trembling lips, unable to tear her gaze away from where Vi was emitting small inconsistent puffs from her rescue aid. There was definitely something wrong with it. They most likely hadn’t time to check it was properly rigged before heading out. Whatever the problem was, it wasn’t allowing Vi to make a steady retreat.Vi was maneuvering around large pieces of debris in space without a safety tether while carrying another astronaut all with a broken jetpack. It was simultaneously the most terrifying and most astounding thing Caitlyn had ever seen.“F@ck-” Vi’s voice crackled through the speakers as she approached a metal sheet the size of a door. She let out a burst of nitrogen and turned her body to go feet first into the metal, rotating on it like a surfboard before pushing off back toward the station.Caitlyn could only barely register Mylo saying “holy sh@t” once more from somewhere in front of her. She’d be lying to say she wasn’t in complete awe, but the only real emotion at the forefront of her being was pure terror.“She’s going straight for the hatch.” Claggor threaded both sets of fingers into the hair at the base of his neck, pulling at the strands with his jaw clenched in tense anticipation.“She can make it.” Powder was standing once more, glaring fiercely at the screen. Caitlyn had never seen such a look in the girl’s eyes before. It was almost terrifying, as if she would set the world ablaze should Vi and Ekko not make it back safely.“Come on Vi.” Vander said, fear but also an astounding faith laced into his words.A broken solar panel approached Vi’s path. This time, Vi kicked her legs forward to position herself upside- down before engaging the SAFER and blasting downward out of its way. She was so d@mn close to the hatch now, just a little bit further-“Vi-” Caitlyn pleaded, unsure if her astronaut could hear her but feeling the need to call out anyway.Vi didn’t respond, but she reached back and banged her fist hard into her rescue aid pack, it then emitted a large burst of nitrogen that propelled her and Ekko forward, straight into the EV hatch.“I got him. We’re secured.” Vi breathed out, her voice crackling from remaining static.All three of her siblings erupted into cheers. Claggor grabbing both of them into a bear hug before lifting them off the ground as if they weighed nothing. Caitlyn simply collapsed back into her chair, staring blankly ahead of her. The emotions she had been suppressing under her roaring adrenaline all came pouring to the surface at once and she broke down. She had just enough foresite to mute her microphone before the uncontrollable sobs ripped from her throat, tears streaming in thick streaks down her face.She had almost lost her. She’d almost lost Vi. The most precious thing she had ever known. Someone who lit up her world brighter than any star could dream of.It was in that moment of sheer overwhelming panic and relief that it became so clear to her what exactly it was she felt for her astronaut. She had danced around admitting it to herself for so long but in the face of losing it for good, she finally understood. It flowed through her like a river, sparks lighting in her gut and warmth filling her chest. Drowning out her fears, all of her panic and mixing with the remaining adrenaline to create something devastatingly painful, but also beautiful.“Caitlyn.”Caitlyn hadn’t realized she stopped sobbing and was now just quietly emitting tears. She glanced up to find Vander standing at the entrance of her cubicle, his brow furrowed in concern but gazing at Caitlyn with an irrevocable look of gratitude.“Yes?” Caitlyn breathed out, unable to say much else or move from where she was slumped into her chair.Vander let out a shaky exhale, his right hand coming to rub against his chest directly over his heart. There was so much meaning in the gesture, more than words could convey. “Thank you.”Caitlyn wanted to say that Vander had nothing to thank her for. That she would go to hell in a handbasket a million times over for Vi, but she just couldn’t find the words. Instead she offered a weak nod, which seemed to be good enough for Vander at that moment.He smiled fondly in understanding and walked away to join the others. Caitlyn let them have their family moment. She was still in a world of her own. Lost in coming down from the most terrifying situation she’d experienced in her lifetime and yet wrapped in a newfound understanding of herself and what she wanted.It was all too much.“Whoo, close one, aye?” Vi’s voice came back to Caitlyn’s headset. She seemed to be out of her suit now, back onto the closed communication line that the two usually shared. Caitlyn’s breath caught, her mouth suddenly dry and a new sort of anxiety pulsing through her veins.“Caitlyn?”Caitlyn took a deep, ineffectively steadying breath, unable to keep the tremor from her voice as she unmuted her mic to speak. “That was- that was quite the show of heroism.”Her voice was so quiet and timid that she wasn’t even sure if Vi heard her. The adrenaline and anxiety roared in her ears as she sat, knuckles white where she gripped against the wooden edge of her desk.Vi was quiet for a moment before she sighed, an understanding and compassion in her voice once she spoke once more.“Is that really what you want to say?”“No.” Caitlyn said, her voice shaken but firm. “No it’s not.”“Well then, let me have it.”Caitlyn did just that, unable to stop the pouring of emotions that spewed out of her like a broken faucet. “That was- that was so stupid and reckless and-and dangerous and if you ever do something like that again I swear to god I will go up there myself and drag your ass back down to Earth.”Vi paused. “Well, that doesn’t sound too bad...”“Violet.”“I know, I know. I’m sorry, cupcake. It won’t happen again.” Caitlyn closed her eyes, envisioning Vi in front of her, a sympathetic and remorseful furrow to her brow. “Hey, I’m alright, yeah?”Caitlyn shook her head, frustrated tears brimming in her waterline. “I’m so- I’m so angry. I wish you were here.” She gasped out a small sob, furiously wiping at her cheeks. She knew what Vi did was necessary. She saved Ekko. It didn’t mean Caitlyn wasn’t irate with concern and frustration. “I wish you were here so I could hold you and feel that you’re safe and punch you in your stupid toned abs and tell you how- how frightened I was.”Vi sighed, simply listening to Caitlyn sob softly, allowing her to get everything she needed out. It was so unbelievably aggravating not being able to physically be with Vi at that moment. To touch her and ground herself and find that relief in Violet really being all right.“I’m sorry, Cait.” Vi said quietly. “I’m sorry I- f@ck if I was there I’d hold you so tight and wipe those tears away. It’s killing me that I can’t but please just try to take a few deep breaths for me, okay?”Caitlyn did as she was told, closing her eyes and focusing in on Vi’s voice while forcing some shaky in and exhales. After a minute or two, the shaking in her limbs had calmed to a dull tremor and she couldn’t help but let a hysterical laugh bubble past her lips.“What’s funny?”“I just- you were the one in danger and yet you’re comforting me.” Caitlyn wiped at her cheeks, pouting cutely at the frustration she felt toward herself. “I just feel sort of ridiculous.”Vi laughed softly. “Don’t worry about me, cupcake. I’m tough as nails.”“Quite stubborn as them too, I’d say.” Caitlyn smiled fondly, folding her arms atop her desk and laying her head against them to stare at her photo of Vi. It was a bit uncomfortable and awkward with the headset on, but she couldn’t care less at that moment. “You’re really alright?”“Yeah, I’m good. That was- sh@t, I won’t lie it was f@ck@ng scary, but it’s gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of me.”Caitlyn hummed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”“Oh yeah? Gonna put a hit out on me, cupcake?”“If you scare me like that again then I just might.”“D@mn. It’s kind of s@xy when you threaten me.”“Shut up.” Caitlyn found herself smiling. She felt a lot calmer now just hearing Vi’s voice, hearing the steadiness in it and knowing that Vi was safe. “How’s- how is Ekko?”“Well, he could be better.”Caitlyn’s smile dropped. “What? Why? Is he okay?”There was a pause. Then, “He puked in his helmet.”Caitlyn couldn’t help but laugh a little too hard into her forearms. She didn’t care anymore. Everything was so absurd. “Well that explains why he went quiet.” Caitlyn sniffled and wiped at her cheeks. “Looks like Powder owes Mylo his money back.”Vi groaned. “Don’t even get me started, man. I had so much bet on him, now I owe Loris like fifty drinks when we get back.”“Hm, a moment of silence for your wallet.”Vi chuckled and Caitlyn took a moment to bask in the sound of her laughter. Vi was okay. She was there. Caitlyn couldn’t feel her touch, but she knew it in her heart.“You should go home and get some rest, Cait.” Her voice was so soft, filled with so much concern. How incredible this woman was to do nothing but show empathy and care for others after what she had just been through.Caitlyn tensed. Her voice quiet as she responded. “I don’t want to leave you.”“I know, but I need to regroup with the crew and assess the damage, make sure everyone is alright. There’s a lot of stuff we’re going to need to catch up on over the next few days.” Vi breathed out slowly. There was a gentle smile in her voice now as she spoke. “We’ll talk tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere. Everything is fine now, yeah?”Caitlyn lifted her head off her desk, wrapping her arms around herself in a hug. “Are we…” She felt a warmth creep up on her cheeks, her voice shy and hesitant. “Are we going to talk… about last night?”Vi hesitated. Caitlyn’s heart thumped steadily while she waited. “Yeah.” Vi said gently, relaxing Caitlyn’s posture immediately. “We’ll talk about it.”“Okay.” Caitlyn smiled to herself, the butterflies practically singing in her gut.“Get some rest, cupcake. You earned it.”“You too.”Neither one of them made to end the transmission. It seemed neither of them wanted to. Not after the day they had. It was almost painful to Caitlyn knowing she would need to leave. To walk out of this building and go home to her empty flat. She almost lost Vi today, she wasn’t ready to say goodbye again.After a moment of listening to one another’s breath over the line. Vi finally sighed in defeat.“Talk to  you tomorrow, Cait.”Caitlyn closed her eyes, trying and failing to push down the well of emotions overflowing in that moment, but resigning herself nonetheless.“Bye… Vi.” ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ Caitlyn didn’t remember leaving the comms building. She didn’t remember the drive home, or pushing open the door to her apartment. She didn’t remember changing out of her sweats into a pair of silk pajama pants and a tank top, or feeding Chowder a scoop of food before collapsing onto her velvet green couch. She had done it all in a trance, a state of shock that had her moving through the motions of what she needed to do without really feeling the impact of any of it.After staring at the ceiling of her apartment for god knows how long, the emotions of that evening had once again caught up with her, spilling down her cheeks in quiet streaks of hot tears.It was all too much to bear and suddenly she was smacked with the heavy feeling of solitude. She was so alone. Too alone.She needed Vi there. That was the only thing that could bring down the swelling ache in her heart, but it wasn’t possible. Still, that desperate need for companionship was weighing on her heavily, a desperate cry for help within her heart that she couldn’t bear to leave unheard.She whipped out her phone without a second’s thought and typed in the number of the only one who she knew could help at this moment.“Hey Sprout! What’s up?” The sound of Jayce’s voice over the phone alone gave Caitlyn a spark of comfort. Still, it wasn’t enough.“How soon can you get to Houston?”Jayce must have heard the desperation in Caitlyn’s voice. Within seconds she could hear the expensive clack of his shoes against the ground moving in a swift pace from wherever he currently was. “I’ll be there in two hours.”Caitlyn sighed, feeling a bit of relief. Jayce truly was an amazing friend, someone she could always count on. “Thank you.”“Did something happen?”“Yes.” Caitlyn tilted her head against the back of the couch, her jaw clenched as she glared at the ceiling to avoid any more tears threatening to fall. “It’s- everything’s fine now I just… I need you here. Physically. I can’t take the distance any longer.” There was a bit of a double meaning to her words. She wasn’t specifically talking about Jayce, but it did apply to him. She needed to feel someone’s presence. To ground herself in reality.“I’m coming. Let me hang up and make a few calls and I’ll be there. Okay?”“Yes… okay.”“See you soon. It’ll be alright.”Despite the ache in her chest, Caitlyn smiled to herself. Jayce was on his way.“See you soon.” ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ A little over two hours later, Caitlyn was pulled out of her sleepy lull by two soft knocks at her door. She was exhausted and yet she nearly lept off the couch, almost slipping due to her fuzzy socks as she ran to the front door and yanked it open.Jayce was standing there in a brown leather jacket with a comforting smile, a bouquet of flowers, and an overnight duffle bag. “Hey sprout.”Caitlyn held herself together for all of two seconds before she grabbed the man by his lapels and hauled him into her apartment. She ripped the flowers from his hands and tossed them to her counter before nearly tackling him into a hug and proceeding to sob into his probably very expensive cotton v-neck shirt.Jayce was seemingly stunned for a moment before he dropped his bag to the ground and wrapped his strong arms around Caitlyn’s shoulders. She couldn’t begin to explain the immense relief it gave her to feel someone, to ground herself in companionship and love. It wasn’t exactly what she had craved over these past few months, she didn’t have that sort of relationship with Jayce, but it was comfort in a loved one nonetheless.“I’m so glad you’re here.” She sobbed into him, unable to hold back the feelings she’d bottled up over the last several hours.Jayce didn’t seem to mind. He had seen Caitlyn at her absolute worst plenty of times. This was no sweat off his back. He gently stroked Caitlyn’s hair and let her cry and squeeze the life out of him until she was ready to let go.Once she finally pulled back, offering the man an apologetic smile, he sighed and reached over to the tissue box on Caitlyn’s kitchen counter, offering her a few to which she mumbled out a small thank you.“Come on, let’s sit down and talk.” He retrieved his duffle bag and ushered Caitlyn into her own living room. She was being a bad host, but it was Jayce and she had been through a rather traumatic experience just a few hours prior. So she didn’t give a sh@t.They plopped down on the couch, Caitlyn pulling up her legs and wrapping her arms around them. Jayce’s eyes were filled with so much warmth and sympathy as he spoke. “Wanna tell me what happened?”Caitlyn really didn’t, but she needed to. She couldn’t hold any of it back anymore. Starting from the end of their last conversation where Jayce had set her up on that ludicrous date, Caitlyn explained everything. Her torn confusion on Vi’s feelings, the odd way Vi had acted after the date, their impromptu s@xual encounter over the comm system, and nearly losing Vi whilst being unable to do anything. She expressed her feelings of helplessness, the overwhelming rush of emotions, the relief and distress. It all flowed out of her like a waterfall.“I don’t know, I just…” Caitlyn sighed, her head falling back to stare at the ceiling. “When I thought I would lose her today… I felt a sense of fear and panic I had never known before. I couldn’t bear the thought of a world where I wouldn’t get to hear her voice every day. I was terrified and in that moment when I saw her return safely… nothing else mattered. My world simply stopped and at the center of it all was her. I’ve never felt something so powerful before.”Jayce listened along patiently, his posture relaxing into the couch cushions and a newfound understanding overtaking his chiseled features.“So… if I’m hearing this correctly then-” He sighed, forcing Caitlyn to meet his knowing gaze. “You’re in love with her.”Caitlyn squeezed her legs in tighter, staring blankly at the edge of her coffee table. She simply didn’t have the energy to fight her feels any longer. “Yes. I’m in love with her.”The man nodded slowly. Chowder jumped onto the couch and curled up in his lap, purring softly as the man began to scratch behind his ears. He never laid in Caitlyn’s lap like that, the traitorous wh@r@.“And how do you feel about that?” Jayce asked hesitantly.“I don’t know. Conflicted? Irrational, maybe?” She lowered her legs to the ground and gripped the edge of the couch. “I mean, I’ve never met her in person. Is it possible to fall in love with someone you’ve never even touched? Never seen in the flesh? Never been in the same room with?”“Of course it is, Cait.” He said it so casually, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “In this day and age of technology people fall in love on the other side of the world from one another. Sometimes they go years before they actually meet in person. You’ve spent nearly every day for the last four months talking to her for hours on end. You told her about Cambridge and opened up about things that it took you years to do with others. You clearly trust her and have formed a connection on a deep level.”Caitlyn chewed on her bottom lip. “You don’t think it’s too fast? That I’m being far too hasty and mistaking that fear in the moment as being feelings deeper than they are?”The man shook his head. “If it feels right to you Caitlyn then it doesn’t matter how fast it is. Tell me something, do you still feel that adrenaline? That horrible fear that you’ll lose her?”“No.” She didn’t really need to think about it. Was she still on edge? Absolutely. Terrified as she was earlier though? Not at all.“And you still feel the same about her?”Caitlyn swallowed nervously, her voice a soft whisper. “Yes.”“Well then, there you have it.”She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Sometimes you are so painfully pragmatic. Not everything is so easily solved as a simple equation. There are other factors to consider.”“Like what?”“Like… I don’t know.” Caitlyn fidgeted with her hands. If only she had some sort of emotional support cat that wasn’t licking himself shamelessly on her millionair friend’s lap at the moment.“Like, how Vi feels?”Caitlyn nodded. “Yes. That.”Jayce hummed in thought for a moment. “Well, you won’t know unless you ask her.”Caitlyn fell sideways onto the couch, grabbing one of her decorative strawberry pillows and pressing it over her face. “It’s not that easy.” She grumbled into the fabric.Jayce sighed. “Lesbians are so f@ck@ng useless.”Caitlyn kicked him in the arm, earning her an annoyed glare from Chowder. The man laughed and rubbed at his arm, feigning like it hurt when Caitlyn knew she couldn’t put a dent in him even if she tried.“Seriously, talk to her about it. What’s the worst that could happen?”“I could get my heart broken and lose my job.”“You’re so dramatic. That’s not gonna happen, Caitlyn. Based on what you’ve told me, I would frankly be shocked if she didn’t feel the same.”Caitlyn removed the pillow from her face to frown at her best friend. “You think so?”Jayce’s eyes rolled. “Well she’s been flirting for months, you had whatever that romantic dancing sh@t was, clearly she regretted encouraging that date, then you had phone s@x-”“It wasn’t phone sex.” Caitlyn grumbled.“Space comm sex, whatever. I’m just saying the signs are there. So stop being a gay mess and just communicate. That’s all you’ve been doing with her all this time.” The man chuckled incredulously. “You’d think you’d be good at it by now.”Caitlyn crossed her arms, a stubborn pout to her lips. “You’re so annoying.”He flashed a cheeky grin. “But you know I’m right.”Yeah, he was. Jayce was far more familiar with the intricacies of romantic relationships than Caitlyn was, but she wasn’t a completely lost cause. She knew he was right, that the only path forward with Vi was to put all of her cards on the table. Consequences be damned, she had almost lost Vi today, it couldn’t get any worse than that.After deciding she had been enough of a sh@tty host, Caitlyn made her and Jayce each a cup of tea. They sat for a while reminiscing and catching up on each other’s life and Caitlyn finally felt as though she could relax. Enough for a soft yawn to part her lips.The alarm had sounded at about five in the morning, leaving Caitlyn with only about four hours of sleep behind her from the previous night. After much insistence from Jayce, she shuffled off to take a nap while leaving the man to do some work on his laptop. Caitlyn wasn’t sure she could sleep, not after everything that’s happened, but she was surprised to find an unavoidable heaviness to her eyelids as her cobalt hair settled across the silk pillows.Her last thoughts before she completely lost consciousness were of Jayce, how grateful she was to have such an incredible and supportive friend. Of Vi’s family, how much she admired their strength and will as they watched their beloved daughter and sister put her life at risk for the sake of another.And her very last thought was of Vi, how she ached to finally breathe life into those feelings she’d danced around for months. How she yearned to feel Vi’s touch and revel in the softness of her lips, the warmth in her fingertips.And how hopelessly and desperately in love she was with her astronaut.
  
  

    
      
        
        
          :)Comments and Kudos much obliged <3'
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