The Split

Razorback

"Altas to Razorback."

Razor reached over and picked up the communicator he'd set out of the way.

"Razor here."

"Are you doing something important?"

"At the moment I'm repairing the damage that the Siren received yesterday."

To be precise, the Banshee had taken damage dogfighting an Advocate while Razorback had been out joyriding. Having spent his ammunition he'd been forced to trick the Advocate into flying into a cliff to kill it. At the moment he had it up on jacks so he could get access to the port-ventral tailfin which had been nicked in the fight. The damage wasn't bad but welding while lying on your back is slow work.

"Understood, when you're done Del wants you to report to the Med bay, some kind of test or other."

"Acknowledged, Razor out." He shut off the comm and set it back out of the way.

"Xena, do you know how much of that rock dust paint is left?"

Not exactly, but there's enough to fix the paint job on this.

"Good, Maria's mad enough that I have this up on jacks for a few hours."

You don't need to tell me, I was there, he got the odd impression she was giving him an I-told-you-so smile.

Lifting the patch into place Razor gabbed the arc welder and slid his goggles down on his face.

Holding it in place he began to weld it up, trying to ignore the sparks dropping on and around him.

Don't hurt yourself Xena teased him playfully.

Razorback suddenly jerked his arm back and swore as he hit the ground clamp. The shock hadn't been strong enough to do any serious damage, but it had still surprised him. Above him the Banshee groaned on its supports.

Two realizations came to Razorback in an instant. First, he'd hit one of the supports pretty hard and the Banshee was now barely sitting on then. Second, that there was no way he could get out from underneath it before it fell.

Grabbing the communicator he flung it out from under the ship and the closed his eyes.

Razor, what's going on? Xena could feel his emotions quite clearly and she understood something was wrong, but they still allowed each other to keep their own private thoughts, so she didn't know what it was.

"It's going to fall."

Then why'd you throw out the Comm?

"You'll need it."

She realized what he was about to do, but before she could object it was done.

The banshee hit the ground.

Xena opened her eyes and stared at the fighter. She was sitting on the ground next to the thrown comm. Razor was still under the Banshee.

Grabbing the comm, she flipped it to the emergency signal.

"Xena to Ops, we've got an emergency!"

"What?" Altas didn't waste time on unnecessary chatter.

"The Banshee fell on Razor." Her voice was strained with emotion, but whether it was anger or pain or confusion she couldn't tell.

"Help is on the way, can you get it off with the lifter?"

"Yes."

Running over to the controls she positioned the heavy crane over the Banshee and lowered it into position. She hooked it up as quickly as she could and raised the Banshee into the air.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and glanced up at Del. Somehow she was kneeling on the ground next to Razor holding his hand. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten there or how long she'd been there though that concern was shoved so far into the back of her mind that she probably wouldn't realize it for days.

Staring at Del she realized she was crying. It was something she rarely did, only once since she had come to Fantasma. That was the day she and Razor had gotten together.

"He's alive." Somehow she already knew that, but Del's statement reassured her somewhat.

The next few hours were a blur. She vaguely remembered a few images, and a question or two someone asked her, but for the most part time slipped past unnoticed. When time reverted back to it's normal flow she was in Med Bay on a chair next to Razor's bed, still holding his hand. She was still crying and continued to do so until she finally cried herself to sleep.

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