Spoilers: It Makes a Lovely Light (not blatant)

Summary: Beka's cousin disrupts the lives of the crew of the Andromeda. Written, for the first few chapters, in an alternating present/past format. Present takes place after the events of the season finale are resolved. Hopefully, you'll pick the format up as you go along.

Author's Apology: To anyone who has autism or knows someone with autism...etcetera. I actually did research the disease. I know it isn't curable now, but this is in the future. Anything is possible. If this disturbs you, either e-mail me at [email protected] or don't read the story.

Author's Note: Warning! Themes of rape, death, and violence. This is a dark story. Or, at least it will be. Anyway, it has a not-so-convenient reset button at the end, so skip the last chapter if you don't like them, but be warned that IMHO, you're missing a great ending. Other than that, read and review!

Author's Note Part Two: I have a good deal of this written (the part in the past, mostly). I'm just posting the first three chapters to get some reaction.

Chapter One: The Prodigal Cousin

"Hey, Captain Hunt, can I talk to Beka?"

Dylan sighed. His day had just gotten worse. "I'm sorry, Rafe, she's on a supply run." Not to mention three days late.

"All the better," Rafe said, glancing around nervously.

Which meant all the worse for Dylan and the Andromeda. "Please explain, Mr. Valentine."

"Well, I actually wanted a favor from you. One of my...friends was knifed in a bar fight. I'd bring her to a medical facility, but...well, let's just say I have neither the time nor the money."

"So, you though we could help her out," Tyr finished blandly.

"Hey, big guy, I wasn't asking you," Rafe retorted. "So, Captain, will you help me out? She's dying."

That last bit had sounded too close to begging for Dylan to refuse. "Alright, Rafe, we'll take her."

"Thanks, Captain, I owe you one. I've gotta run; I'm gonna drop her off in an escape pod." He disappeared before Dylan could say another word.

Dylan sighed again. He had the feeling it was going to be a long eternity.

"How is she, Trance?"

"Well, she has a knife wound down her right side. I can fix that easily enough, but it's the fever I'm worried about. I can't control it. Her immune system is as bad as Harper's," Trance told him.

"Well, keep trying," Dylan said, then frowned. "You know, she sort of reminds me of someone."

"Yeah, me too," Trance agreed, standing next to him and staring at the red-haired woman.

"If you harden her features, make them less pixie-like and a little sharper...make her hair blonde, short, and less curly...give her a 'tough' look...age her by about ten years..." Dylan trailed off, afraid to say it.

Trance finished for him. "She's Beka."

"They look so much alike, don't they," Dylan said.

Trance just smiled. She had a good feeling about this woman.

Dylan had been right. The woman had reminded him of Beka. He could see that now that he was looking at both women stretched out side by side on two bed on Med Deck.

He had found out where Beka had been five hours after Rafe had left. Beka had stumbled onto the Andromeda with a sprained knee, a bloody nose, a black eye, and a broken wrist. As to what had happened, he had no clue, since she passed out the moment she saw the other resident in Med Deck. Which made life so much more interesting. Unnecessarily.

Just as a pounding headache was beginning to form, Beka stirred and her eyes blinked open.

"Ow," she said groggily.

Dylan handed her a painkiller. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got run over by Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee," she groaned.

Dylan winced as she used the rather undignified nicknames. "What really happened?" he asked, pulling up a chair next to her bed and artfully blocking her view of the room's other occupant.

"Oh, some guy got upset over my supplies. He apparently thought I was paying too low a price, and hired a couple of goonies to get rid of me. They caught me when I was loading the cargo and beat me up pretty good before I managed to find my force lance and chase them away," Beka explained.

"How did you manage to pilot with a broken wrist?" Dylan wondered. "Even you're not that good."

"Thanks for the compliment. Well, I actually didn't." Beka looked a bit sheepish. "When Rommie was pulling me in, one of my doors malfunctioned...and I punched it."

Dylan had to smile at that. "Good going."

"Thank you. So, what's my cousin doing here?" Beka asked pointedly.

"Who?"

"The girl. On the bed over there. Well, I guess girl isn't the word...Andy'd be about 24 by now..." Beka trailed off, a faraway look in her eyes. Dylan hated to draw her back, but he had to ask.

"She's your cousin? I didn't know you had a cousin," he blurted out, curiosity overwhelming him.

"Yeah. Meet Cassandra Valentine, affectionately called Andy. She's my late dad's late brother's daughter. In some ways, you could say she's the best of the Valentines," Beka said wistfully. "She helped me out on the Maru for almost ten years. Great kid."

Dylan smiled. "I was never very close to any of my cousins. You're very lucky."

That was obviously the wrong thing to say. Beka closed her eyes and pain swept across her face. "We were close. We...had a disagreement about two years ago. I haven't seen her since; she's been living with my brother, I think."

"Yeah, he dropped her off. Said she'd got into a fight," Dylan explained, cautiously putting an arm around her. He was surprised when she leaned into him.
"No, that's not Andy. She was always so sweet, so shy and unprovocative. She would never have started a fight. Rafe must have done it. I never should have yelled at her," Beka said, frustrated.

"Beka, whatever happened...I'm sure it wasn't your fault," Dylan comforted her, hoping she would open up, just a little.

Nope. "How would you know?" she burst out, moving away from him and onto a safer topic. "So, what happened?"

"Well, Rafe said they got into a fight at a bar and some guy knifed her. Trance had a little trouble at first, but she said Andy would be fine with a couple days rest," Dylan told Beka, who looked relieved.

"That's good," Beka said. "We'll have to keep a close eye on her after that; she'll keep going till she drops. She was always like that."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. Even when she was little." That faraway look was in Beka's eyes again.

"How old was she when you first met?"

"She was...seven, I think, and I was sixteen. We're really eight years apart, but Andy was born late in December. I started out hating her, but that was before we really met..."