Issue 1 Downtime

Ryan, rather irritated at the night being shot, and possibly (okay, mostly) at his girlfriend, slammed the door to his bedroom and went to his bed to get some studying done.

After having gotten Melody safely to her room, Rachel, feeling nervous and guilty, and pissed off about feeling guilty, and still more than a little drunk, knocked on Ryan's door.

Ryan tossed his book back onto his bed, sighing as he went to the door. He looked through the peephole, then sighed as he opened the door. "Yeah?"

"Can I come in?"

"Oh, it's my turn now?"

"Can we not talk about this in the hall? Please. Just let me come in."

"Fine. Come in," Ryan sighed, moving out of the way so she could get in.

"I'm sorry I missed your texts." Rachel said.

Ryan just stared at her a minute. "Well, you and Melody didn't seem sorry to be missing anything, really..."

"Yeah...about that...."Rachel said "that was...it seemed like a good idea."

"Well, whatever. I guess I don't have any place to tell you what you can do. I thought you wanted to get together tonight, but whatever. You don't owe me anything."

"And you don't owe me anything." Rachel said "I'm sorry I wasn't sitting around waiting for you to get finished with your very important cheating on me."

"Chea- what the FUCK are you talking about!" Ryan shouted, going from zero to pissed in no time flat.

"I'm talking about you sneaking over to 'work on lesson plans' with your favorite furry." Rachel spat.

"I was WORKING on the fucking LESSON PLANS that I HAVE TO DO for my JOB. In the FUCKING DANGER ROOM. Where ANYONE COULD HAVE FUCKING SEEN US!" Ryan shouted back at her, livid.

"Oh please, like half the school isn't doing the nasty in there." Rachel said "Its why you can lock it."

"I- for FUCK'S SAKE, it's MONITORED TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY! READ MY FUCKING MIND if you don't trust me!"

"Yeah, because what I really want right now is to see that."

Ryan gritted his teeth. "Do it," he growled, advancing on her, "Now. Or get the fuck out and never talk to me again."

"Fine." Rachel said, taking a breath to clear her head before she started to look into his mind.

In which, she'd find a memory of a few hours of Ryan working on lesson plans with Steph. It wasn't as bad as it could be, since Steph was a good friend, one that he knew much better than Rachel might like. But she'd feel nothing like any intent to do anything with her. Nor would she find any memory of doing anything with her. Nor would she be able to feel any signs from his body that he'd been doing anything.

She WOULD find, though, that he was hungry, hurt, and really, really, really pissed off.

"I'm sorry." she said softly "I thought....everyone says that you two are hooking up....."

"Of course everyone says that, everyone's also an idiot that follows whatever freaking gossip gets thrown around. It's really great to know you believe them over me."

"That and you still think she's hot." Rachel said defensively.

"Yes, because I break up with someone, they instantly become unattractive, right?" Ryan shot back.

"That depends on how broken up you really are."

Ryan gritted his teeth. "Fine. I get it. Get. Out."

"So this is it?"

"Apparently. If you want to keep making up bullshit that's not true instead of trusting me? Fine."

"I want to trust you. I do trust you." Rachel said "I said I was sorry."

"No, you don't trust me. You skip out on me because I have to do work, you keep making up reasons why I'm supposedly doing bullshit that I'm not. You're only saying that now because I'm telling you to get out."

"I went to Maldon because I was pissed off and hurt." Rachel said "it....I'm sorry if I can't switch my emotions in two seconds, ok? But I'm not bullshitting you."

"Not bullsh- Rachel, I have told you the god's-honest truth, and you made up shit to be 'hurt' by. Because you don't trust me. You're not bullshitting me, you're bullshitting yourself."

"Maybe I was." Rachel said "but you blew me off, and you were so evasive...look, I fucked up and I'm sorry.'

"Evasive? I told you everything that was going on!"

"Eventually, yeah." Rachel said "Anyway....look. I fucked up, and I'm sorry."

Ryan looked at her incredulously. "Event- So this is my fault, that's what we're saying here?"

"No, it isn't your fault." Rachel said "I was being stupid and paranoid. I'm sorry, it wasn't right." tentatively, she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Well you don't sound like it," he snapped. "You sound irritated that you couldn't prove your paranoid bullshit right, and like you're trying to brush it off so you can try again later."

Rachel sighed "I'm not going to try again. Look, its just....I love you. I care about you, and I just want to forget about this whole stupid fucked up day. Please. I just want us to be ok."