The Law of Attraction [Chris Beck]

Chapter 3

          "I'm going to miss you, kiddo." Nick, Alice's older brother, wrapped his strong arms around his sister. She hugged him back, feeling the tears well up in her eyes. Alice and her brother had a close relationship, they relied a lot on each other after the death of their father. Even though he had been moved out and living his own life when their father died, he came home frequently after that to ensure his 'baby' sister and mother were doing alright. He had been the one to keep the family together, get Alice back on track in her schooling, and was the backbone of the family. She hugged her older brother a little tighter.

           "I'm going to miss you too, old man." She grinned as she finally released her grip on her big brother. "Take care of mum, right?"

          "Of course." He nodded; he took care of everyone. He had even flown down to the States from Canada to say goodbye to Alice. They didn't see each other a lot due to the distance between them, and she always felt bad that when their mother's mind began to deteriorate that the burden was once again put on him because of Alice's career. Nick never once showed any sign of disappointment in her. In fact, he was proud of her for everything she had accomplished, and wanted to see her succeed like any good brother would.

         Her goodbye with her brother was a lot easier than that with Patrick; he was still weary about her leaving. So many things could go wrong, but that was not what he was worried about. She could see it in his eyes when she left that morning, but she decided that there was no more time to address the situation. Again and again she went over it, telling him that he need not worry about Chris Beck being on board with her. There was nothing more that she could say or do to make him believe, except to go through with the mission and prove that she had no feelings for Beck, and her heart remained on Earth with Patrick.

           That was twelve hours ago that she parted ways with her boyfriend; she was now aboard the Hermes with six other crew members, and all thoughts of home were out of her head. She was excellent at compartmentalizing and her head had to be on the mission and nothing else. After everything had been triple checked, communications, flight pattern, systems, and the ongoing list of things that needed to be checked daily, the crew settled down for their first dinner together in space. Alice tried not to show how excited she was, but her eyes kept turning towards the windows so that she could look at the space that was just outside. Never before in her life did she imagine she would go into space, even when she began working for NASA as their head psychologist, it never once occurred to her that this might be a possibility.

              "How're you hanging in there, Blake?" Watney asked as she sat down at the table with them; they all had their individual meals prepared, sitting in front of them looking strange but tasting good if you were hungry enough.

              "Hey, stop taking my questions." Alice grinned. "If I don't prove I'm useful on this trip they might fire me when I get home."

             A few chuckles came from the table, and Alice looked up to see Beck's eyes on her. Instead of avoiding his gaze and creating an awkwardness that she would have to deal with for the next few hundred days, she decided to lock her eyes on his. A smile crept onto her lips, showing that she respected him, and she was happy to be in his company, but that was all she felt. There was no reason to dig up the past and there was no reason to let it get in the way of a friendship that she knew would certainly come from this trip. She knew that she would become the closest of friends with all of these people, and that was all she could want from them. They would be family sooner rather than later, and while the crew already seemed like family, she knew that she would be part of it soon.