The Babysitter

Tasks

Lime's PoV:

A little bit later I was feeling myself again - ish. Then it dawned on me that NASA wasn't letting us back early no matter what, so I had to continue with my tasks.

Quite a shame... I really could just sit here all day...

Very reluctantly, I shift away from Black and stand up, retrieving my tablet from the table.

"Wha- where are you going?" He asked

"Tasks" I yawn. "They need to get done. We won't be allowed back until we finish them."

"That's stupid" Black grumbles, "we're kinda in a crisis here"

Smiling weakly, I reply "not any more"

"I mean.... kinda...." he sighs, "we're all going to suffer this for the rest of our lives... especially the children.... we still don't know if Blue is going to make it...... or what'll happen after. But it'll never be 'over', unfortunately..."

"You're right. But finally getting out of here might make it better?"

"Yeah" he replies. "I think I'm going to check on Blue, see how she's doing"

"Do you want me to look after Coal and Scarlet while you're there? Some of the other children still don't seem too keen on having them back-"

"No it's okay" Black says, "I'll take them with me just in case."

Does he not trust me to take care of them? Is that why he's never asked me to babysit Coal for him, even when he really needed it?

Somehow, I think my eyes gave away my thoughts, as he immediately tried to correct himself

"I... I know you're capable, you're the best with children, even though you don't have any of your own... every single one of them adores you. You wanna know why I never asked you to look after Coal?"

"I mean... I guess?" I shrug, only this time I wasn't too much in anticipation of his answer.

"Everyone just decided to dump their children on you. You handled it pretty well, but anyone in that situation is going to get stressed at times, especially when there was nobody you could talk to. Then... most of the crew started making fun of you, and it must have been a lot to deal with. I didn't want to weigh you down with another responsibility, when you already had so many."

"That's..." I mumble, a little surprised to be honest. "wow."

"There were so many times I wanted to talk to you, tell you how the others were wrong about you..."

"But you didn't wanna become an outcast too?" I finish off for him. He nervously nods, seeming ashamed to admit it.

"I'm sorry... it's kinda like the imposter thing. I gave in to my fear, that little voice of doubt in here" he tapped his forehead with a finger.

"No, I get it" I mumble, sighing. "Who would want to associate themselves with me?"
Turning around, I begin to head off for my nearest task, the wires in storage that I left unfinished when Rose was judging me.

I only took two steps when I felt Black lightly grabbing my arm, stopping me from leaving. "Hey... that's not what I meant. You're a really good person, Lime, I want you to know that"

"Thank you..." I mumble, not entirely sure how to react. Nobody else in the crew had ever been nice to me, it didn't make sense... well... to be honest? When did anything ever make sense in the first place?

Wires. I really didn't like wires - yeah, simple task, I get it...

It took me about 18 attempts to finish it.

The rest of the tasks were about just as unsuccessful, taking varying lengths of time to complete, each and every one of them much, much higher than they were supposed to.

And then I had to do some stupid code in admin.

Did they tell us the code during training? Uh, or was that for something else? No idea...

Nope, I couldn't remember it. But, it was a six digit code, sooooo....

000000
000001
000002
000003
000004
000005

And I stayed there for a good.... few hours?

012836
012837
012838
012839
012840....

Just then, I heard a metallic creak, causing me to scream in surprise as the vent flew open. Scarlet bursted out of the vent, quickly followed by Coal, then Black, who was carrying what seemed to be another spacesuit, a Lime one... but clean. No helmet, either. We've completely abandoned them by now.

"We found extra stuff in storage!" Scarlet exclaims, whilst Coal was doubled over in a fit of giggles due to my reaction to them all suddenly leaping out at me.

"Did you have to-" I laugh, pointing to the vent.

"It's faster" Black sheepishly smiles, passing me the suit, which I put on.

"Yeah, as long as you don't get lost" Coal adds

"True" Scarlet agrees. "Hey, I bet I could get back to the launchpad before you, even if you use the vents and I run

"Ohh, really?" Coal grins, hopping back in. "3, 2, 1, GO!"

And then the pair of them disappeared off.

"Ugh!" I exclaim, yet again selecting an incorrect code.

"What's wrong, Lime?" Black asks, concerned.

Sitting down dejectedly, I sigh before miserably responding "I can't do any of the tasks. I failed at putting in the code"

"No, you didn't fail" he firmly says, sitting down next to me. "You've just found a thousand ways it won't work."

"Twelve thousand eight hundred and forty...." I mumble, but a small smile creeps onto my face anyway.
"I've been here for hours."

"That's dedication for you" Black laughs, crossing his arms and leaning against the admin table.

"How's Blue?"

"Apparently she woke up. Lapis said she told him about ghosts or something..." Black claims

"Woah" I murmur, standing up. "Hi... can you see me? Ghosts? Helloooooooo!"
I glance over at Black, and the pair of us burst out laughing at how absurd the situation was.

"Okay" I smile, stepping towards the admin table once more. "I know 12840 ways it doesn't work. Time to find the way it does work"

Black begins walking out of the room, but pauses in the doorway. "You know, the id code is on your card"

I suddenly spin around to face him. "What?!" I exclaim, fumbling inside the pocket, only to remember that this was the new suit. Groaning in frustration, I begin to walk out of the room, but Black stops me, holding out the card.

"You left this on the floor in the bathroom" he shrugged, before adding"Also, you still got a little blood there", pointing to my forehead.

He smiled knowingly, then turned and left before I could even respond.

Okay, uh, let's try this number again... my card says '989776'. It would have been painful getting that right by my 'trial and error' method.

Fingers crossed... and.... THE CODE WORKED!

I leap into the air in delight (yeah, I'm just like a child...)

I.... I can finally do a task!