MAIA SAT PERCHED on top of the mattress she had woken up on a mere ten days ago. She was back in the infirmary, sitting quietly as she waited for Beck. She was finally getting her stitches out and she was more than ecstatic because of it. The original plan was to have them taken out on sol fifty-eight, but she had accidentally ripped them out in her sleep on sol fifty-five, thus reopening her wound and injuring herself worse than she had already been. Although worried all the same, Beck had been thoroughly amused with the fact of it, as had Johanssen and Martinez, while Maia was quite perturbed because of it, more-so because of the blood she had to clean up and the pain she had been met with.

Though it seemed as if a horrid amount of physical pain had been dumped onto Maia within the last several days, with each passing day the emotional pain she had been battling seemed to decrease in amount. Maia was nowhere near close to being okay or happy as she would've been had she had her brother, but the situation was becoming much easier for her to deal with. She was slowly letting go, as she knew she needed to do. Maia was beginning to feel as if she wasn't being presented with a choice when it came to her emotional feelings, and although she was still very much broken from her brother's loss, he was gone, and that was something she felt she needed to accept.

Maia would see Mark again, maybe not in this lifetime, but in a distant one. As of right now, she had her memories of him, as well as her memories of both of them, and she would hold onto them for as long as she could. Maia would never let go of Mark, but the agonizing pain of missing him was a different story. It was a slow and difficult process to let go of something that had been dictating every aspect of her life for the past forty-six sols, but she had to, not only for the sake of herself, but for the sake of her crew-mates, and for the sake of her job. She knew Mark wouldn't want his sad little sister running around and ruining everyone else's day when she was supposed to brighten them; she knew Mark wouldn't want her to waste her time crying over him, no matter how much she loved and missed him.

Beck then walked into the room, attracting Maia's attention almost immediately. She looked up at him and smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. Beck noticed this and frowned, walking over to grab the supplies he needed in order to take out Maia's stitches.

"What's wrong, Maia?" Beck asked her, worry lacing his tone.

Maia looked over at him as he turned back around. "Nothing. Why do you ask?"

Beck sighed and walked over to her, placing his tools down beside her. "Your smile—it isn't yours."

"Hmm, you seem to know me more than I know myself," Maia teased as she watched him grab the scissors. She was only slightly terrified, as she hated the idea of something so sharp being near her face. She could hardly stand it when he had to put her stitches back in for the second time, and she hated now that he had to take them out, though she loved it at the same time.

"I've known you for quite some time," Beck chuckled as he carefully raised the scissors to the side of her head. "I need you to be still for me, okay?"

Maia nodded, causing Beck to move the scissors away from her face.

"I told you to be still, Maia," he said with a raised brow.

Maia frowned and shrugged. "I didn't know how else to let you know that I heard you."

"A verbal answer would have sufficed," Beck laughed as he slowly inched the scissors back towards the side of her face. "Now be still, please."

"Got it, smartass," Maia spoke quietly.

An automatic smile lit up Beck's face, and he pressed the cold metal against her face, raising his other hand up to keep her head steady. He worked quickly to remove her stitches, though not at such a pace that would harm her.

"You okay?" Beck asked her as he began working on pulling out the last stitch with the scissors.

"Mhm," Maia squeaked, though she was partially lying. For the first time in a few days, her wound was now bringing her pain, and she hated it.

Beck let out a sigh and pulled back to look at her, his blue eyes meeting her tear-filled hazel ones. "Yeah, you're okay, but your eyes are tearing up."

Maia gave him a look and reached up to wipe her face. "You're a doctor, Chris; you know that's what happen to people when you do this kind of shit."

"I know, but you're not all people," he remarked as he walked over to grab a bandage from his supplies. "You're Maia Watney and I know you."

"I just don't like pain, Chris," Maia told him as she looked down at the floor.

Beck walked over and placed his fingers under her chin, tilting her head back up so she was looking at him. "I know, and I don't like seeing you in pain, Maia."

Maia looked into his comforting blue eyes, her own eyes softening at the sight of them. "I know you don't," she spoke softly as she reached up to grab his hand.

Since Beck had spent the night in Maia's room, things between the two of them had become so subtly intimate. It transitioned from the way they looked at each other to the way they acted around each other and back again. The two weren't able to pick up on the change, but their crew-mates definitely were, more-so Johanssen and Martinez. Lewis was rather skeptical, but she didn't think to question the two of them about their behavior. To her, their actions were still seemingly harmless.

One change Maia did notice, however, was the feeling that erupted inside her whenever Beck was so much as within her peripheral. Beck gave her a sense of comfort—a sense of belonging. He made her feel as if she mattered; he made her feel happy when every other part of her was telling her to feel sad. Maia couldn't begin to understand why she felt the way she did about Beck, but she didn't think she wanted to understand. She was okay with her feelings. She wanted to roll with them—she wanted to see where they could lead, and she didn't care what NASA had to see about it either.

"I wanna thank you for being by my side, Chris," Maia said to him, her gaze still locked with his.

"I'll always be by your side, Maia," Beck replied as he delivered a gentle squeeze to her hand. "I'll be here until you tell me to go."

Beck didn't care what NASA had to say either. He had spent the better part of three years keeping the feelings he held for Maia buried so deep inside him for the sake of his NASA employment and he couldn't do it anymore. His feelings were becoming much too strong for him to conceal anymore, so he decided to just let them out. He wanted to take care of Maia and he wanted to be there for her, though he didn't want to do so the way a doctor was supposed to for his patient; he wanted to do so the way a best friend did for a best friend or the way a lover did for a lover.

He just wanted her—needed her even—just as she did with him.

"You don't have to worry about that," Maia breathed out as she pressed her forehead to his, reaching her hand up to place on the side of his face. She had completely forgotten about her wound in that moment. There was only him.

Beck's breath hitched in his throat and he moved his hands to her waist, dropping the bandage onto the mattress behind her. "I guess that's a good thing, isn't it?"

Maia chuckled and nodded, and before Beck even had the time to think, Maia was pressing her lips to his in a gentle, but passionate kiss. Their lips moved in sync with one another's, molding together perfectly as if they were made for each other. The pain Maia had felt was immediately replaced with a strong sense of comfort and reassurance as she moved her lips against his, as well as a sense of contentment and home, feelings in which she never thought she'd ever feel again.

Beck only deepened the kiss, nearly pulling her off the mattress as he did so. He tightened his grip around her waist and moved closer to her, a smile pulling onto his lips as he felt her snaking her arms around his shoulders. He had waited so long for this, and now that he finally had it he was never going to let go of it—he was never going to let go of her.

A familiar voice in the hall caused the two to pull away from each other. Beck wiped his face and grabbed the bandage from behind Maia and pulled it open, hurriedly trying to gather his thoughts. Maia just sat quietly on the mattress with her hands folded in her lap and her lips pressed into a tight line to prevent herself from smiling like a lovestruck idiot.

"Watney, are you in here?" the Commander's voice sounded.

Maia looked up as the redhead appeared in the doorway, while Beck's concentration remained solely on removing the bandage from its pack. He was flustered, much too flustered. Had it been Johanssen or Martinez, he wouldn't have cared, but the Commander was a different story.

"Hey, Commander," Maia greeted her. "What's up?"

Commander Lewis crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the door frame. "Martinez broke the coffee machine again and I was wondering if there was a possibility you could fix it?"

Beck chuckled at the information and moved towards Maia again, moving her wavy brown hair out of her face in order to place the bandage where he needed to.

"He still hasn't learned how to use that thing?" Maia remarked with a raised brow.

"It appears so," the Commander replied, eyeing Maia and Beck carefully.

"I'll see what I can do," Maia told her. "I'll finish up here and be there in a little bit."

"Copy that," the Commander replied with a simple nod and walked back out of the room, leaving Maia and Beck alone once again.

Beck let out a breath as he finished applying the bandage and he looked at Maia, his blue eyes glistening brightly. He raised a hand to the side of her face, moving the pad of his thumb softly over the warm skin of her cheek. "I wanna be with you, Maia; I've wanted to be with you since we began our training together but the rules—"

"I don't care about the rules, Beck," Maia cut him off. "I care about you."

"You never were one to let someone finish their sentence," Beck chuckled. "I was gonna say that the rules don't permit this—the rules don't permit us—but I'd bend the rules if that meant I was able to have you."

Maia smiled up at him. "Then we'll bend them together. I'll keep you my dirty little secret."

"That sounds dangerously scandalous, Maia Watney," Beck laughed.

"It's The All-American Rejects, actually," Maia giggled.

Beck shook his head in amusement. "That song is like thirty years old."

"Lewis's disco music is older, but you don't hear me complaining about that," Maia teased.

"I do, actually, unless she's listening to David Bowie," Beck replied. "You're just like your brother."

"It's just that Watney charm," Maia told him as she hopped down to the floor. "But I gotta go fix this coffee machine. I still don't understand how the guy can pilot a spacecraft but he can't work a damn coffee machine."

"He's Rick Martinez."

"Valid point," Maia chuckled. "But I'll see you later, okay?"

Beck smiled and nodded, planting a soft kiss onto the top of her head. "How's a movie sound?"

"Absolutely fantastic," Maia replied before kissing him on the cheek and taking off, leaving Beck alone to ponder over his newfound happiness.