THE PAIN OF SILENCE
Disclaimer: I do not own SeaQuest or it's characters. I'm just borrowing them for fun.
Jonathan Ford and Lonnie Henderson stood a few metres apart from each other in Jonathan quarters in the middle of a tense, and personal discussion.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Jonathan rolled his eyes, "I'm busy!"
There was a long pause, long enough for both the room's occupants to think that the intruder had gone before Lucas' voice was heard from the other side of the door, "It's important," he sounded distressed.
Ford sighed and moved toward the door. Lonnie threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and turned to walk towards the bed. Jonathan opened the door just as she sat on the bed, "This better be good, Lucas."
Lucas’ face changed off his response as he realised that he really had interrupted something. He tried to look passed Ford, weighing up the situation, "Ah... I'm sorry.. I.. I'll come back later."
Ford rolled his eyes at his own compassion as Lucas turned to leave, "No it's okay," he waved his arm back towards his open door. Lucas walked into the room slowly, running his hands through his hair.
"What's wrong?" Ford asked him, closing the door behind him.
Lucas' voice shook as he spoke, "Ah... it..it's about.." he sighed and looked away, covering his mouth with both hands then letting them drop down to slap his thighs.
Ford waited patiently while Lonnie resisted the urge to make any comments.
"Um.. it's about that station that Hudson's been sending me to the last couple of days.." Ford noticed Lucas' eyes beginning to fill with tears and ducked towards him to check what he was really seeing.
"Lucas?" he was seriously worried now, "What is it?
Lucas turned around and pushed a palm into his brow, "Ah... the people there. They're not on our side, Commander." He took a breath and looked down.
Commander Ford shook his head in confusion, "Not on our side?"
Lucas pursed his lips and swallowed, "They've been asking me all sorts of questions that they know I can't answer."
"What kind of questions?" Ford asked him.
Lonnie stood up and walked towards them, concerned and interested.
"They.. they want to know codes for UEO databases and God knows what else.." Lucas' voice thickened, deepening an octave.
Ford remained calm, still processing what Lucas was telling him, "How do you think they’re going to try to obtain this information?"
"They've been asking me," Lucas breathed, sneaking a quick look at both of them as dropped his head to the ground. He noticed Lonnie finally, but didn’t show any surprise or concern from seeing her there.
Ford raised his eyebrows, not following, “Asking you?” he paused for a moment, trying to work out what Lucas was so upset about, “You didn’t tell them anything, did you?”
“No,” Lucas scoffed, “Of course not.”
Ford turned around to start pacing, while Lonnie kept her eyes fixed on Lucas.
"They haven’t done anything to you, have they?"
Lucas sighed as Commander Ford faced both of them. He held out his arms as he unbuttoned the sleeves on his uniform jacket. Looking down at them he pulled them up to reveal bruised wrists and what looked like cigarette burns running all the way around and up, disappearing under the sleeves still covering him.
"Oh My God," Lonnie gasped.
Ford jumped forward to grab his arms, "Jesus!" Ford couldn’t believe what he was seeing, "Is this all they did to you?"
Lucas just shook his head, closing his throat to stop an outburst of tears.
"How long has this been happening?" he demanded.
"The whole time," Lucas forced out, starting to cry slightly.
"You went back down there twice more after they did this to you!?" Ford demanded, hurt and worry manifesting itself through anger, "What are you trying to do to yourself, Lucas!? Torture doesn’t make you a better soldier!"
"Jonathan!" Lonnie cried. She took Lucas’ upper arm gently. Lucas had a few more tears running down his cheeks which he ignored and he changed the way he was breathing to try to hide his sniffles. He appeared to be trying to act as though he wasn’t crying, as Jonathan still held his arm, looking at it in horror.
Ford looked back up at Lucas, gripping his other shoulder supportively, "My God, Lucas! Do you know how lucky you are that they didn’t kill you!? Why didn’t you tell anyone?" he asked.
"I.. was scared,” he told Jonathan matter of factly, “and.. and I thought it would just stop. I'm sorry."
"It's alright,” Ford said, feeling guilt over making it so difficult for Lucas, "We'll get this sorted out."
He turned to Lonnie, "Get Hudson down here."
At the reference to the Captain, Lucas pulled away from his two friends and pushed his hands up into his eyes to stop the flow of tears. As he let his arms drop back down, Ford pulled him towards him and rubbed his back, "Lucas,” he sighed, “if somebody hurts you.. We want to know about. Okay?"
Lucas rested his face onto Jonathan’s shoulder without responding.