INSECURITY

This is an AU based on the second-season episode entitled "A Visit To Hades." There are also brief references to the second-season episode "Wild Adventure," the second-season episode "Forbidden World," and the first-season episode "Ghost In Space."

            Dr. Zachary Smith continued to sit very quietly at the table after dinner was over, speaking to no one and meeting no one's eyes. He felt depressed, despondent, scared, and grim. Even as Maureen and the children went back into the ship carrying the dinner dishes, he remained. Robinson and West talked tech casually and Smith ignored them, but his nerves were bad and he squirmed.

            At a lull in their conversation, Smith shot a glance at each of them, and then he hesitantly asked, "Major?" His voice was unusually soft.

            "What is it, Smith?"

            "About this afternoon." His tone was even fainter. "When...you...wanted me to tell you about Morbus."

            West gazed at him, beginning to guess where this might be leading.

            "If I...hadn't surrendered...." His eyes flickered in discomfort. "Were...you...really...going to?" His volume dropped with each word.

            West favored Smith with a lopsided grin. "What, beat the daylights out of you?"

            Smith only managed a silent nod.

            West regarded him earnestly. "I was."

            Smith shuddered. West tried not to smile.

            "Professor?" Smith next asked, "Were you really going to...let him??"

            "I was."

            "But, ...you two know how afraid of that I am."

            "Yes, Smith, I think we have some idea," said Robinson, and West nodded along with him, both suppressing smiles.

            "But...but...it's so cruel and harsh! You've usually stopped him!"

            "Not this time, Smith." Robinson folded his arms and sat back comfortably in his chair.

            Now, Smith was trembling continuously. "But I needed you to stop him!" The older man was close to sobbing.

            West suggested, "Hey, just be glad John didn't offer to join me in beating you."

            Robinson reminded him, "Sometimes I do."

            Smith gasped at the idea. "You two are so scary! I've seen you both...fight aliens...and I hate to see that, because it makes me imagine how bad...!"

            "How bad it hurts?" Robinson finished for him.

            Smith nodded silently again, and then blubbered, "You two don't know what it's like to be afraid of you like this! You're both so dangerous!"

            Both brunettes were openly smiling at him now.

            "It's not funny!" he protested weakly.

            "We're not really laughing at you, Smith. It's just that you've built it up into such an exaggerated terror," commented Robinson.

            "But then you mustn't!" he implored. His eyes were beginning to shine.

            Neither man offered comment.

            Smith's volume had risen, but now it faded again. "You could so easily kill me without meaning to."

            "No, no, no," Robinson assured him. "We know what we're doing."

            With bitter sarcasm, Smith muttered, "Yes, you're both such experts!"

            "Be glad we are," West remarked. "With real fights with various aliens, it's an all-out battle. We give them the full treatment. With you, we'd know how to hold back, so we wouldn't do you any serious injury."

            Smith shuddered hard. His eyes were glassy with unshed tears as his gaze traveled between the two men. "But you would still hurt me horribly!" He sniffled.

            Robinson and West both tried again to smother their grins.

            In his softest voice of all, Smith speculated, "If you two ever really started in on me, I think I would die of fright."

            Now Robinson and West both laughed aloud. The former said, "Smith, you're not going to die of fright."

            Unoffended, Smith countered quietly, "You don't know that. I think you underestimate how frightening you two are. And how fearful of you I am."

            The two brunettes exchanged nonplussed glances at that.

            Just then, Will emerged from the ship.

            Smith next addressed him. "Will. This afternoon. Why did you betray me???"

            The youngster looked uneasy. "Dr. Smith, we had to know the answers!"

            "But you know how afraid of them I am! I was counting on you! You're my only real friend!"

            "But you brought it on yourself!"

            "Yes, you said that this afternoon," Smith reminded him stiffly. Then, he went on earnestly, "But I didn't! Not really! Not this time! All I did was play a few notes on that dreadful lyre! Everything else just followed from that!"

            "Dr. Smith, what do you want me to say? And look, even if I had taken your side, I couldn't have stopped them anyway! They had made up their minds."

            "Is that true?" Smith regarded the two men askance.

            "It's true," said Robinson. West nodded.

            Smith despaired, "You two like all of this too much!" His nervous, flickering eyes kept finding them, and fleeing again. "You're both so frightening!"

            West wondered, "Was today the worst we've ever scared you?"

            Smith gave it some thought. "Bad enough! But, well, maybe not the very worst. I suppose the scariest you two ever get is when you both seem about to gang up on me together, as you mentioned earlier. Like the time I had our position plotted on a piece of paper, and you two wanted me to give it to you. Or the time you were both very angry that I'd sent the Robot outside, and you two were demanding that I go out after him. And the time you were furious when I confessed that I'd thrown the explosive in the bog. You both grabbed me! You were rough!" He trembled in remembrance.

            West admitted smugly, "You realize, by telling us this, you're giving us ammunition to use against you for the future."

            Robinson couldn't help but smile along with him. "Yes, you're basically giving us a blueprint of how best to intimidate you."

            Smith instantly paled dramatically, which amused both men further.

            "I think I'm going to bed," Will said. This conversation was clearly making him uncomfortable. He started away, toward the ship.

            "Don't leave me!" Smith cried automatically.

            Robinson couldn't resist saying, "Remember, Smith, we've already established that Will couldn't stop us anyway."

            Smith choked back a sob.

            West chuckled.

            "I think you two are just playing with me!" Smith accused.

            "No," West told him blandly. "We mean everything we've said. But we are enjoying ourselves, yeah."

            "You are cold and cruel! Both of you!" Smith dared to add, including Robinson in his accusing gaze.

            Robinson's humor fled and his brows rose. That expression alone frightened Smith.

            "I mean," he stammered. "I'm...sorry. Don't...don't...." His hands rose defensively and his eyes widened in terror. Robinson and West both stared at him penetratingly. Meekly, Smith requested, "May I go to bed, too? If...you gentlemen don't mind?" When they didn't answer immediately, he whispered, imploringly, "Please let me go."

            Robinson and West both nodded that it was a good idea. Smith slunk off into the spaceship. The two men watched him disappear inside, shook their heads at each other, and grinned.