"I think that vacation was the most fun I'd had in my entire life.  Just me, Rafe, and Andy.  We taught Andy how to swim, Rafe hit on a bunch of girls, and I met some cute guys in tight bathing suits."

     "Sounds like...fun," Dylan said, smiling as Beka blushed red.

     "Hmph," Beka answered.  "My whole life was better, Dylan.  Andy just had that effect.  And it wasn't just that we were putting on a show for her.  We were more like a family even when she wasn't around."

     "I believe you," Dylan assured her, hearing the need to convince him in her voice.

     "Why would I need you to believe me?  It's true," Beka defended herself, instantly on guard.

     Dylan shook his head.  "Never mind."

     A full-blown argument was stayed by slight stirring on the other bed.  Before the fact could register in Dylan's brain, Beka was up and holding Andy's hand.

     "Andy?  Andy, are you awake?" Beka asked hesitantly.  Dylan quietly left the room.

     The red-head blinked her eyes open slowly.  She squinted, trying to make sense of the blonde circle that blocked her vision of the ceiling.  "Rebecca?" Andy asked, hoping she wasn't making a horrible mistake.  She blinked a few times, clearing her vision, confirming that who she saw was the person she had wished to see for two years.  "Rebecca...what did you do to your hair?"

     Beka laughed self-consciously.  "Same old Andy, huh?  Always concerned about my hair."

     Andy frowned.  "You're not...mad?"

     "No, of course not, sweetie.  I thought you were mad at me!" Beka exclaimed, confused.

     "Oh, Rebecca, I stopped being mad at you ten nanoseconds after I walked out the airlock," Andy told her, as confused as Beka was.  "I thought you were mad at me.  I thought...I thought you didn't want me back."  A hint of the seven-year-old came into her voice.   "I thought you hated me...for disobeying you and loving him."

     "No, Andy, I was wrong, you keep on loving him, baby.  Forgive me?" Beka asked.

     "Of course I forgive you!  But can you forgive me?" Andy wondered, as the tears began to come.

     The fact that Beka started to sob and flung her arms around Andy was answer enough.  The tears of the two who were nearly one mingled and became unneeded, and past wrongs were made right, and broken hearts were mended, and love was reunited and strengthened...all in the space of a heartbeat.

     "So what ended up happening was that me and Andy caught something at the beach, and we both got really sick halfway through the drug raid.  We stuck it out through the end, with me caring for Andy and Rafe trying to care for me.  I remember being the getaway pilot, because my dad said he was depending on me to get us out of there, real fast.  I don't remember anything after that besides waking up in a hospital and being surprised that my dad actually paid for hospital bills.  Rafe told me long afterward that I almost died on the Maru, and Dad got scared and took me to the hospital and the doctors still had trouble pulling me through.  I still have the scars from the various I.V.'s they stuck in me.  Andy was fine; she bounced right back after about a day in the hospital.  She left the next week, and thing were fine for about a month after that.  But one day...Dad needed to make a drug run, and he took Flash...and life was back to normal," Beka finished sadly, picking at her food.

     "Things weren't really back to normal, were they," Dylan stated, taking a sip of his wine.

     "No, they weren't.  Some part of us still remembered that we could be a family, but without Andy there...things got worse.  Rafe and I fought all the time, Dad began taking far too much Flash, we began taking more and more risks.  One day, Rafe told me what really happened to my mom during a big fight, Dad heard him, and Rafe left.  Not too long after that, Dad O.D.'d on Flash, and I was left with little more than the Maru," Beka said, contemplating the wine and deciding it wasn't worth it.

     "Beka..." Dylan started, then continued with some trepidation.  "Nothing that you told me will ever pass my lips unless you want to talk about it."

     Beka smiled gratefully.  "Thanks, Dylan.  Thanks for listening.  Somehow it made me feel better to talk to someone.  But don't ever expect it to happen again," she    said, shaking her finger at him.  Dylan got the impression that, despite her joking tone, she was deadly serious.

    "Now," she continued, taking a few last bites of her food, "I think Andy would like to talk to you."

     As one cousin replaced the other, Dylan was struck once again at how similar they looked.  As he talked to Andy, he realized how different they were on the inside.

     "Hello, Captain Hunt," Andy said shyly, eyes slightly downcast.

     "Dylan, please," he told her.  "Sit down."

     She did so, finally meeting his eyes and smiling at him.  "You're the best person I've met in a long time...although you've got the potential for evil things, I don't think you'd use it unless absolutely necessary, and even then you'd think twice."

     Dylan just blinked at her, taken aback by her odd statement.  "What do you mean?"  He marvelled at her odd change in demeanor, from shy to friendly and trusting in a single instant.

     "Hasn't Rebecca been talking to you about me?" Andy wondered, frowning.  "I don't know what I mean, I just know about people."

     "Beka...mentioned it," Dylan said in amazement.

     "She was a bit surprised the first time I read someone too.  Most people are.  Some doctors have tried to study me, but they don't know how I do it.  Most have come to the conclusion that it's a phenomenon of the autism I had as a child," Andy explained.

     Dylan shook his head.  "That's an amazing ability.  You know, you should meet Trance.  She can sort of...read people, too."

     "Trance...who is she?" Andy asked.  "Oh, she must be the person who replaced the man that replaced me.  Shay told me about her."

     "Shay," Dylan said.  "Do you mean Harper?"

     "Harper...right, that's what he tells people to call him.  I though I broke him of that habit.  Yes, Harper," Andy agreed.  She was quite animated now, in a gentle sort of way.

     "Harper...what's your relationship with him?" Dylan asked.

     "That's a long story," Andy said, laughing.

     "I'd like to hear it," Dylan told her.

     "I guess Shay wouldn't mind..."

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