Van Terra II: Overdrive

Chapter Twenty ~ Hide and Seek

This is one of my favorite episodes, so I guess I'll sit here and kill the next twenty minutes.

Grace quickly realized how much more fun Dimension Five was to watch with Jasper next to her. She'd already been enjoying it, but the jokes were ten times funnier when Jasper was laughing at them, too. And she frequently caught Jasper mouthing quotes as the characters said them with an impressive degree of accuracy.

Rather than sticking around for one episode, Jasper made it halfway through season two before falling asleep. Grace jolted in surprise when she glanced over and realized Jasper was out. It had only been a few minutes since she last made a snarky comment about the show's villain.

Jax and Holly had already retreated to their beds, but Thea still sat on the floor nearby, hunched over her laptop.

Grace crept over. "How's it coming?" she asked quietly. "Uh, unless you're in the zone and don't want to talk—"

"The Y-path protocols are working perfectly," Thea said. "But I can't seem to get them to respond to the input. The commands are being processed by the pathway, so I don't understand why—" Her face lit up. "Oh, I'm dumb! I forgot to assign the secondary application. Thanks, Grace."

"Uh, happy to help," Grace replied. "You going to bed any time soon?"

Thea's fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed a long string of numbers. "Mm, in an hour or so."

"Oh. Cool." After a moment, Grace said, "Jasper fell asleep on the couch."

"Oh, she does that at the apartment all the time watching movies."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Thea's hand jumped to the backspace key and tapped it aggressively a few times. "Though I guess she's been too busy the past month to watch any."

"I was just trying to figure out if I should wake her up or just...leave her there," Grace said.

Thea shrugged. "She probably won't care either way."

"Oh. Okay."

Grace made her decision and crossed the room to the closet. Inside, as she'd hoped, she found a stack of blankets. Most were scratchy and covered in weird stains, but there was one in decent condition.

She carried it over to the couch and, after a moment's hesitation, draped it over Jasper. Jasper didn't even stir. She was really out cold.

Grace threw one last glance at Thea before slipping into the next room and climbing into the bed she'd claimed. The empty bed on the other side of the room—the one they'd put Jasper in when she came back injured the night before—was the last thing she saw before her eyes drifted shut.

The other bed was still empty when Grace woke up. Gray light, filtered by the never-ending clouds in the sky, illuminated the crumpled sheets. The unpleasant smell of what must have been breakfast mixed with the room's ambient musty odor. Grace rolled onto her back and stared at a crack on the ceiling, suddenly wishing she was back at the apartment on Kronos. She'd had low expectations last time they ran around the star system for the races, but the atmosphere here on Netu was starting to convince her she'd never see the sun again.

She forced herself to climb out of bed and walk into the kitchen. Jax was the one preparing food. Thea and Holly were nowhere to be seen. Jasper was still passed out on the couch.

"Is she okay?" Grace paused in the middle of the room and glanced at Jasper. Her position hadn't changed at all from how Grace had left her last night.

"I checked when I came out," Jax replied as he poured half a bottle of solnut oil into a bowl. "She's fine. Just asleep."