She could feel the pressure of the atmosphere battering their vessel, the impact that their speed was having on them. She knew what pressure like this could do to a human body. Becka, maybe moreso than anybody else here, was well acquainted with the nuances and delicacies of the human body. She knew exactly how much pressure it took to penetrate human skin. She knew the exact angles to cut to avoid organs or harm them. She knew exactly how much pressure bones could take before splintering. And she knew...oh, she knew, exactly how long a body could withstand what they were currently going through before it succumbed.
Shawn had joked once that she would make one of the world's deadliest assassins if she'd had the killer instinct and mindset required. He hadn't been wrong.
"All of you need to relax before you pop a blood vessel, find a place in your minds and occupy it for another few moments. Get ready to take your second wind"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The scent of fresh beignets was in the air, peppered with wood smoke. It was the scent of the French Quarter in the fall. The temperature had finally cooled from the hot and humid summers that Louisiana experienced. October hadn't hit yet, and so neither had the influx of vampire seekers who flooded the Quarter every all. No, it was just her and Shawn in their own little world in this moment, a cup of hot chocolate in hand as they strode through on one of the rare days that neither of them were pulled into work. It was a small snippet, but one of her favorite days in its pure simplicity.
She was jerked from her reverie as Judy snapped back and couldn't help snickering to herself. "Judy, think of that cat video that Dr. Hopkins sent around three weeks ago," she suggested lightly.
Just then, they hit space and the entire cockpit went silent as they stared in awe. No matter how many high-res pictures you saw from the ISS and telescopes there was nothing that would ever compare to this moment. The moon hung, a glowing orb in the sky, and she turned, and saw Earth below her.
Never in her life had she felt so simultaneously large and small. So nothing - a mere speck in the universe - while feeling larger than life with the knowledge that she was one of the rare few to be able to have this experience.
And then they were plummeting, and all of her knowledge came racing back.
She closed her eyes, counting her breaths, listening intently to make sure that nobody was going into distress. She had to fight the urge to reach towards the neckline of her suit, knowing that her rings were hanging on that chain beneath it. They had become a totem to her without her even realizing it. Whenever she was worried, sad, or distressed, she reached for that necklace, just as she'd used to subconsciously rubbed a finger against her rings while they'd graced her elegant hands.
As soon as their vessel stilled she took a quick self-inventory. Her blood pressure was slightly raised, but there was nothing out of the ordinary aside from that.
And as Adam called for everybody to sound off, she immediately did so, assuring him and Shawn that she was fine, with a selfish sigh of relief.
Unbuckling herself, she stood from her seat just as she'd watched Judy do, and while her gait was not like that of a newborn deer, she was still unsteady on her feet.
She stood still, looking around, taking in a visual affirmation that everybody was fine. Her eyes landed on Shawn first and she had to squeeze them shut for a moment before she refocused on the mission at hand and visually checked everybody else. Everybody's individual personalities had never been so clear as they were in the reaction to their eventful journey, and to the sights that lay in front of them.
Shawn was quiet and contemplative. Judy was filled with fascination. Orion was quipping. Daniel was joining him, although perhaps not with the same fervor. Nancy was quietly introspective. And Adam, as always, was shepherding his family like a flock.
And then she truly focused in on what had Judy's attention. The crystals, the colors, the fauna...none of this was supposed to exist. All science declared that it was impossible, everything that man had known up until this point...
Her mind immediately flipped into science mode as she walked in a daze passed Shawn and stood beside Judy. Both women had their gazes plastered to what was outside of the cave. This was remarkable, astonishing, quiet literally unbelievable. "What the hell," she murmured slightly, her mind completely gone from the people surrounding her and focused now on what lay outside.
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