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Scotty keeps watch through the night.
There's no need or even a reason to. The prisoners cannot hear the guards outside of their quarters. There is never a sign that the door is about to open until it does and if it does open while they are asleep, Scotty is certain that they will all awaken in an instant. Still, every time he closes his eyes, he sees Harkness and he cannot sleep.
He does not see PO Harkness guiding Ensign Tremaine to millions of dollars worth of contraband in the Basilisk station. He does not see Harkness marrying a Marine and grinning from ear to ear while he does it. He does not see Harkness looking after Carolyn or Aubrey Wanderman and he does not see Harkness staying behind with HMS Wayfarer to the bitter end that wasn't an end after all.
All he sees on the back of his eyelids is Senior Chief Horace Harkness, Royal Manticoran Navy, betraying God, Queen, Country, and Lieutenant Commander Prescott Tremaine to the Peeps and all that he feels is the way that betrayal hurt more than even the gun butt that one of the StateSec goons had shoved into Scotty's gut.
***
Scotty is barely half asleep when Caslet arrives. It's strange for the Peep -- the Citizen Commander, he corrects himself; whatever Caslet is, he isn't a Peep, he isn't one of them -- to arrive in the middle of the night. In well over a T-month, Caslet has never done that.
He sits up slowly, barely listening to what Caslet has to say. They knew they would make it to Hades eventually and that all hope had already been lost. The news that the Skipper is going to be executed very shortly is another heavy blow, but he's had enough of those by now that it barely registers.
What does register is the door behind Caslet opening and a very, very familiar face appearing in the entryway. There is no legitimate reason for Horace Harkness to be with his fellow Manticorans again. The Peeps would never willingly have allowed him to return -- which must mean they haven't allowed it and that Harkness is there of his own doing.
The gloom around Scotty lifts. Harkness has not betrayed Queen Elizabeth, he has not betrayed Manticore, he has not betrayed Scotty. The feeling of pure elation is shattered just a moment later, however, with the striking feeling of shame on Scotty's part for his own betrayal and disloyalty.
He shakes that feeling off, barely, and focuses on what the Senior Chief is saying. There will be time enough for guilt later, he hopes. For now, he has to learn what their next move is and whether they really do have a chance at making it out alive.
***
Days later, he and Harkness serve a watch together aboard one of the shuttles. They talk a while, more to break up the monotony than to actually communicate, and it's exactly as easy and comfortable as it always has been -- until Harkness mentions Iris.
"I thought about her on Tepes," Scotty says quietly. When Harkness doesn't reply, he continues, "I mean, about what I'd say to her if -- when -- we got back without you."
"You really thought I'd deserted, didn't you, Sir?" Harkness asks. It isn't a question, not exactly. When Scotty nods, Harkness grins crookedly. "Good. You were supposed to."
Scotty doesn't say anything in response to that, he just looks at Harkness. Harkness frowns, then breaks the silence. "The entire damn Royal Manticoran Navy couldn't get me to leave you, Sir. You really thought a bunch of Peeps could?"
That makes Scotty laugh. He, like many others, has a few suspicions about how he and Harkness have managed to be assigned to the same ship ever since Basilisk, and now, having watched what Harkness did to Tepes, he has no doubt Harkness is capable of having modified BuPers' files. (Not, of course, that he has ever doubted the Senior Chief, except for that nasty month aboard Tepes that he would just as soon forget.) "I suppose that was a little stupid of me."
Harkness doesn't bat an eye, he just grins at Scotty. "Far be it from me to argue with an officer of the Queen's Navy, Sir."
Scotty snorts. "Far be it, indeed," he says, settling into his chair with a comfortable smile on his face. "Far be it, indeed."
Scotty keeps watch through the night. This time, though, Harkness is back where he belongs: at Scotty's side.