I don't own any of the Andromeda-characters or any rights to Leonard Cohen's song "Everybody Knows…"

Set after One More Day's Light.

Everybody Knows...?

They were sitting in Andromeda's briefing room, Dylan, Rhade and Rommie, when Beka stormed in like an ancient fury, with Doyle hot on her heels. Without paying attention to any of the others present, the blonde strode up to Andromeda's captain, who was seated at the far end of the table, firmly planting herself right in front of him, grabbing for his shirt's chest and closing her fists around it, bringing her face as close to his as possible when it became obvious that he was – more out of surprise – resisting and that she wouldn't be able to pull him forward.

"You really took good care so that everybody knows, didn't you? Okay," the Maru's captain hissed through her teeth, "you listen to me: I don't know what happened between the two of us, nor do I ever want to know, but whatever it was: since I don't remember, I'd very much appreciate it if you at least from now on kept it strictly between the two of us, especially since it certainly won't happen again. Do I make myself clear?"

Surprised, she saw Dylan's eyes blink in puzzlement.

"I… can't really say that you do..." he drawled, his gaze wandering past her and locking with Doyle's, who shrugged embarrassedly.

"Beka, I… I was just teasing…"

The pilot swirled around, straightening up and letting go of Dylan's shirt.

"What?" she growled, frowning at the slender android, who shrugged again, a lopsided, slightly apologetic smile on her face. "You... You mean, he didn't...? I mean... Dylan wasn't...? Oh..." Slowly, Beka looked over to the others present in the room, her eyes wandering from a Rhade unsuccessfully trying to hide his grin behind his hand to Rommie's furrowed, somewhat inquiringly elevated eyebrows and back to Dylan, who had meanwhile jumped up to his feet. The only one not smiling. Definitely not smiling.

Much like Beka had done before, he grabbed for her jacket's chest, unlike her although not seeming to experience any trouble at all to pull the startled woman towards him, before settling – no, slamming her down into the seat next to them. One hand on the table, the other one on the backside of the chair, he menacingly bent down to her so much that their noses were almost touching.

"Enough." His voice, fighting its way through his tightly clenched jaws, was barely above an almost strangled whisper. "I've had it, do you understand me? I've had it up to here," he then added more forcefully, his hand slicing across his throat. For a brief moment his furiously blazing eyes drilled into hers. Without avoiding his gaze, she moistened her lips.

"Dylan, I…"

"Shut up," he ordered curtly. "Shut the hell up or I swear, I won't be able to guarantee for anything anymore. Just what are you trying to do, Beka? Have you made a bet with someone to drive me crazy? In that case, you may cash in because I'm only this far" his thumb and index showed a barely noticeable space, "from losing my mind." He scrutinized her briefly, then pushed himself violently away from her, straightening up and turning away from them as well. "Shit!" he finally concluded loudly, running his fingers through his hair in an exasperated gesture and covering his mouth with his hand as if trying to hold back more angry words threatening to surface.

"You mean…"

He spun around, eyes still ablaze.

"I mean that ever since we ended up in this godforsaken system you seem to think that tormenting me is really the only thing able to make your day. I thought we talked it through, Beka; I thought we had reached an agreement, I thought…" He stopped, throwing his hands up in helpless gesture. "What have I done, Beka? More precisely, what have I ever done to you to have you constantly hunting me down and blaming me for every possible or impossible scenario that crosses your mind?" By now he was almost shouting, completely focused on his XO, oblivious to the others, who were observing the unfolding scene with a mixture of pretended nonchalance, amusement and a barely hidden interest.

Beka frowned, her eyes holding on to his, her chin defiantly up, the stiffness in her demeanor though clearly indicating that even if he could ignore the rest of the crew, she didn't.

"Dylan, ever since Prius…"

"Ever since Prius," he interrupted her harshly, "you've changed tactics. You are no longer aggressive, cold and silently reproachful; instead you've gotten back to being reckless, hot tempered and unpredictable. You throw yourself into affairs with people you don't know, you go against explicit orders, you ignore pleas, you put yourself in danger on a daily basis…" Dylan held on in his tirade, but before Beka could use the pause to throw a word in, he had dropped to his knees in front of her, reaching out for her hands and clasping them in an almost crushingly tight grip.

"Beka, flying so close to that sun trying to shut down Harper's tesseracting device, Peter, Harper's treasure hunt in the Vedran chambers, Marita, hanging around in that artificial sun to get us refueled instead of getting out as quickly as possible as you were ordered to do, and now even those stupid Nietzscheans…" he summed up in an intense tone, shaking his head. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful for everything you do, but Beka, there is a sun coming our way, Trance is… God knows what or who right now, a whole solar system is going to the dogs, we are in the middle of evacuating millions of people, this ship is still not doing what I'd like her to do, there is a universe we have to get back to and save from the Abyss and the Magog – and I spend my nights sleepless not because of it all, but because I can't stop thinking that only ten meters down the corridor you also lie awake, figuring out what crazy stunt to pull on me next. And now…" He looked into her eyes, clearly hoping for some understanding, but then he let go of her hands, jumping back to his feet and began to pace up and down in front of her.

"Now what? Is this really the best you have left? Don't tell me you've run out of mad ideas, Beka, and have now decided to recur to insults…"

"Dylan; I didn't mean to…"

He continued his tirade, disregarding her attempt to interrupt him:

"I must say, you're showing your usual excellency even in this field. Managing to pack two insults into one reproach…"

"Well, what was I to think?" Beka tried defending herself. "I was completely out of it when Doyle brought me back – and next thing I know I wake up in my bed, naked; I went to Command, found Doyle and when I asked her about what happened after she got me and the Maru, since I couldn't remember anything for the life of me, she grinned, saying something about how you've been 'most helpful', so I thought…" Her voice trailed off, losing itself under his accusing glare. For a second their eye contact broke, as he averted his gaze from her to throw Doyle a piercing look. The blonde android, who by now seemed to almost be enjoying herself, shrugged dismissively, but then looked as if she wanted to hide away from Dylan's murderous glance.

"I was joking…" she ventured. But the man was already no longer paying any attention to her.

"Oh, that's just perfect, Beka. You know what?" he yelled at her."Why not repeat it all again – and while you're at it, why not make it three insults?"

She frowned.

"Three?"

"I don't brag about my… conquests. Nor do I take advantage of drugged, helpless women," he spat into her face. "And lady, if I had – drugged, drunk, comatose or even in stasis: you would have remembered."

Silence fell. Beka and Dylan kept staring at each other, his face tensed and slightly distorted by his anger, hers meanwhile displaying a violent shade of red. The others were keeping in tune with the quiet. And then, while the silence seemed to expand more and more, a small, almost imperceptible twitch began to twist at one of Dylan's eyes, it's twin appearing just as discreetly on Beka's face, as well. It happened almost at the same time – and they both nearly noticed it first in the other, before it began to uncontrollably spread from their eyes all over their faces, reaching their lips and finally making them both burst out in laughter. Without really knowing how, they found themselves, joined by Rhade and even Rommie and Doyle, shaking with fits of laughter.

"I… I'm sorry… I…" Beka at long last managed to gasp.

"For… Forget about it… I…"

Wiping her eyes, Rebekkah Valentine stood up from the chair.

"No, really. I am sorry. And very, very grateful that you sent Doyle… I don't know…" She looked over at the Seefran blonde. "Doyle, thank you – and I'm sorry that I almost got you into trouble with Dylan. It's just that when you teased me, I could only see Rhade's and Harper's…" She stopped, then looked abut herself, anew a puzzled look in her eyes. "Wait a minute. Where's Harper?"

They all instantly turned serious, the lighter mood switching to an almost lugubrious one. Beka sighed.

"What?"

"Burma has him," Rommie informed her in a neutral voice.

Beka's eyes widened.

"How…?" she began, but then bit her lip, seeing Dylan's face tensing up again. He cleared his throat.

"It was…" Again he had to harrumph lightly. "It was my fault," he then pressed out. "I… I misjudged the situation; I needed Rommie here, to supervise the evacs and keep an eye on Trance, and so I thought – when Rhade and Harper ran into trouble – that I could handle it myself… I was too late for Harper…" His eyes guiltily shied away from hers. "I'm sorry," he concluded quietly.

Beka remained silent, but then nodded lightly.

"I see. You had to send Doyle to help me and…" She didn't finish the sentence, her eyes clouding with sadness. "I'm sorry, Dylan, I… It was my fault. I really am sorry."

"No…" he began protesting.

"Yes," she interrupted, insisting. "So," she then continued, focusing on Dylan "what's the plan?"

He shrugged looking at a loss.

"I… I'm not sure," he admitted tiredly. "I…" Again he hesitated, then sighed heavily. "We need to sort Trance out, we need to get Harper back, we need to get all those people to Seefra 1, we need to stop that sun, we need… I'm running out of rabbits to pull out of my hat. Hell, I seem to be even running out of hats," he confessed in a tired voice. "Anyway, at least there might be a solution for Harper: whatever Burma wants, in his sick mind it has something to do with revenge for all the technology we brought with the Andromeda – and since I'm her captain I think he just might accept it if we propose to exchange me for Harper…"

Rhade, Rommie and Doyle all spoke at once:

"What?"

"Dylan!"

"But…"

"Do you have a better idea? I'm more likely than Harper to get myself out of whatever that lunatic has in store, and let's face it, people: with Trance on the loose and those masses of refugees to take care of as well as the need to get Andromeda in tip-top shape and that system stopped from going to hell, Harper is much more vital for us here than I am…"

The logic was flawless. But then, into the silence, Beka shook her head.

"No," she said, determined. And then, even more forcefully: "No." Dylan let his eyes rest on her face for a moment.

"Beka…" he began.

"No. That's final, Dylan. If that's your plan, forget it, it's a lousy plan. Okay, people, different plan: I take the Maru and speed up the evac, Doyle goes to Seefra 1 to take care of the refugees, Rommie handles things up here and tries to sort Trance out – and you two boys get in touch with Burma and figure out a sensible way to get Harper back. And Dylan: no heroics, please. We've got our plate full as it is without having to rescue you, too. Okay?"

No-one objected.

"Okay," Beka then said in a determined tone. "I'll see you guys later. Doyle, you're with me," she finished and turned around, leaving the room in a hurry. The android followed.

"Are you going to go along with her?" Rhade's question sounded more like a growl. Dylan sighed.

"Rhade, if you have any objections why didn't you just say so? You have a better plan? 'Cos I haven't, you know." He waited an instant. "Well?"

"No…"

"Then what?"

"Nothing. Just… Just…" A quick glance at the Nietzschean confirmed Dylan's suspicion: Rhade was sulking. Again.

"Just what?"

"Just that we are in this mess because of her stupidity among other things and… I'm thinking someone maybe should have told her so…"

"Well, why didn't you do it?" Dylan asked, despite knowing all too well that in Rhade's book 'someone maybe having to tell Beka something' mostly translated 'Dylan'.

"She's my matriarch…" was the reluctant answer.

"Well, she's my XO…"

"Right, how could I forget that?"

"Can it, Rhade," the captain hissed, menacingly low.

"Yeah, sure, why not? I might just as well save my breath. It's not as if you would ever listen to reason..."

"Of which you are the voice, I presume?" the older man asked contemptuously.

"Of which I'm the voice," Rhade confirmed with force.

"Rhade, what do you want?" Dylan Hunt inquired in a tired tone.

"Gee, I don't know... Captain," the bully man stressed viciously. "Maybe I just wonder about how many times she puts us all in danger for some stupid scheme of hers and gets away with it, maybe I just wonder if we will have to add yet another name – and Harper's at that – to your 'people Beka screwed and whom I couldn't save'-list, that's getting rather longish as of late. And while you're at it, please don't forget to tell her, how it's all not her fault."

"I wish I knew, Rhade, what you've got against Beka."

"Nothing, just starting to think about how many times she put my ass in danger."

"Looks all right to me," Rommie remarked thoughtfully after weighing it carefully, a connoisseur-expression obvious on her face.

"Haven't counted," Dylan replied dryly. "But my guess would be probably half as many times as she so far saved it..."

"Oh yes, of course, forgive me!" Standing up from his stool, the Nietzschean bowed ironically. "How dare I voice my doubts about your precious, untouchable XO?" The Vedran laughed humorlessly.

"My precious XO! Rhade, don't tell me that all of this is about hierarchy..."

"Why not? As long as you keep telling me – and yourself – the same…"

"I wish I knew what you mean…"

"You do. We all do. Everybody knows…" the sturdy man replied stubbornly.

"Knows what, Rhade?"

"That this impressive 'to do'-list you mentioned earlier on… The universe we have to get back to, the battle we have to prepare for… Like in this old song from Earth Harper is so fond of: Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed..."

"Fixed? By whom?"

Instead of answering, Rhade merely confined himself to raising an ironic eyebrow. Dylan laughed incredulously.

"By Beka? You have got to be joking! Now THAT, Rhade, is certainly something everybody doesn't know!"

"Everybody knows the boat is leaking. Everybody knows the captain lied…" the Nietzschean quoted further.

"Lied? About what?" By now, Dylan sounded downright furious. With a visible effort to restrain himself, he pleaded: "Rhade, I never lied about any of Beka's shortcomings. But that doesn't mean that I cannot excuse them, explain them… And it doesn't mean that I can use them to overlook the fact that, but for the time the Abyss had infected her, Beka has always been the most loyal, faithful one of my friends…"

"Oh yes, so very faithful..." Rhade inserted with sarcasm, "give or take a night or two, of course… There were only so many people she just had to meet without her clothes…" He laughed up. "Dylan, if that's what you want to tell yourself, so be it. But is this really what you think?"

"What I think, Rhade, is that this discussion has just hit rock bottom," the other man replied coldly. "I think it might be best to close it now. What do you think?"

The Nietzschean laughed again.

"I think that you might be just about right. As I am about the fact that sooner or later you will have to answer the question about why each time when Beka is at fault and you have to decide for or against her, you always choose in her favour."

And with that, Telemachus Rhade turned around and left the premise.

"He's wrong." Dylan Hunt's statement sounded unnaturally loud in the space left vacant by his Nietzschean officer.

"Yes, he is. About Beka," Andromeda's avatar, who had observed the heated exchange in almost complete muteness, agreed. "But he's also right. About you," she stressed pensively."Eventually, Dylan, you really will have to answer this question. Not to Rhade, but to yourself."

"What makes you think I haven't answered it already?"

"You have?" Rommie sounded surprised.

He nodded.

"And?" she inquired further, curiosity written all over her face.

He shrugged:

"I always choose her because she always chooses me. And so far, she's been the only one to do this."

The dark-haired android looked puzzled.

"What do you mean? I always choose you…" she then said, sounding a bit offended. He shook his head, smiling a little saddened:

"Not quite. You choose your captain. The only times when you really were at liberty to choose, you chose Gabriel the first time; and you would have stayed with him, had he not betrayed you. I don't begrudge you that, but I am aware of it. The second time, on Arkology, you chose Harper. As does Doyle. And as ultimately also does Harper…"

"Dylan…"

"No, Rommie, I'm not complaining. I just note it, that's all. Rev chose his path. Gaharis chose the Nietzscheans. Sarah chose me, but then I chose for her and she… accepted my choice; and sometimes…" He hesitated, like someone stopping short of uttering a heresy, but then continued boldly: "… sometimes I ask myself: had Beka been in her place, would she have accepted that choice?"

"It… it would have killed her, had she not…"

"Yes, it would," Dylan answered in an almost serene tone, from which all doubt had disappeared. After a brief pause, he went on: "Tyr chose his dreams of grandeur. Telemachus is choosing 'the only kludge who defeated Nietzscheans'…"

"He didn't say 'kludge'…"

"No," Dylan agreed, smiling quietly, "he said 'man', but… he meant 'kludge'…"

"Trance chooses you," Rommie threw in, conceding the point.

"Yes, whenever there is a universe around to save, Trance chooses me. But you see, Beka does so even when there is nothing to save, not even a bug. Because ultimately Beka doesn't believe that I can save the universe. In fact, Beka KNOWS I can't, and yet in the end she chooses me… She just chose me over Harper, and I know exactly how much this must have cost her; she chose me over Jonah, she chose me over Tyr and Abel, she chose me over her hatred for Sid, obeying my orders. She chose me instead of Bobby and even of her brother. And at Arkology, despite of first running away, she finally chose me over herself. I never would have made it through the Route of Ages, had she not been there to shoot me a free path."

He lifted his eyes, looking directly at Rommie, and smiled seeming for the first time at peace.

"You ask why I choose her? I ask: how can I not? If not her, who else?"