AUTHOR/PSEUDONYM: Meana
EMAIL ADDRESS: meana@borderline-angel.com
FANDOM: Andromeda
RATING: G
FOCUS: Harper with a little bit of Trance
STATUS: new (30/07/02), complete
SPECIAL WARNINGS: None
ARCHIVE: My sites: ...Mightier Than the Sword and Romantic Intentions, and at Andromeda Archive, otherwise ask first.
DISCLAIMER: This story is an original work of amateur fiction, and is written purely for private entertainment. This story is no way affiliated with any organization that owns an interest in the show.
EPISODE SPOILERS: No spoilers
SUMMARY: Harper can't sleep.
NOTES: This story was in response to a 5 min. story challenge posted on May 3, 2002 to the Andromeda_and_Dylan mailing list. In it, you had to write a story using the following three words: perks, friends, and exhaustion. The first word (perks) had to be used as the first word of the response. Then you wrote for five minutes straight (more if you felt like it) without editing until after you're done. When finished, you could edit or rewrite as you liked. It was an interesting challenge. In a ten minute time span, this is what came to my mind.
Perks of the job...
Harper sat on the Maru and tried to think of some, but exhaustion confused his mind until he couldn't think of a single one. He felt himself slip into a melancholy state of mind.
Unbidden tears came to his eyes and he hastily wiped them away. Tears were a luxury he'd never had time for. You couldn't cry when you were running from Magog or Nietzscheans, tears only blinded you and rendered you an easy target.
He tilted his head back slowly to rest on the bulkhead behind him. "So tired," he sighed. His exhaustion was agony but he couldn't find sleep. He had chased after Morpheus relentlessly, desperately, but was eluded single time. "Why can't I sleep?"
A rhetorical question, and so Harper was surprised when an answer came. "Because you won't let yourself."
He opened his eyes to see Trance standing before him. "Hey, my purple princess," he murmured. "What brings you here?"
"You do." With a slight smile, Trance grabbed his arm and began to lead him to the nearest bunk.
"Won't do any good," Harper said. "I can't fall asleep."
Smiling a Mona Lisa smile, Trance said nothing. She simply pushed Harper down onto the bunk, removed his boots, and made sure he was comfortable. She then sat down beside him, gently rubbed his chest, and began to speak.
Harper didn't hear any of the words, all he heard was the soothing, almost hypnotic tone of her voice. To his disbelief, he felt his eyes begin to close as the Sandman finally began to play his tune.
Just before sleep claimed him Harper had one clear thought -- perks of the job: friends.
The End
