MISCOMMUNICATION

This AU is based on the second-season episode entitled "The Deadly Games Of Gamma 6."

            Professor John Robinson had just said to Smith, "If you're not out of my sight in two seconds, I'm going to demonstrate that great physical prowess...on you!"

            Smith screamed and turned to flee, as Robinson turned on him.

            Major Don West arrived just in time to see John in pursuit and Smith in panic. He misunderstood. He caught Smith, pulled both arms behind him, spun him toward Robinson, and held him for the professor. "I'll hold him for you, John! Let him have it!"

            Smith shrieked, "No!!! Please!!! Let me go!!!"

            Robinson flashed West a rueful look. "Yeah, let him go. It's all right. I just told him to get out of my sight. He was trying to comply."

            Irked, West released him.

            Smith fled.

            Only half-jokingly, West told Robinson, "You're no fun."

            "I suppose not," Robinson acknowledged.

            "You're a pushover."

            "Yeah, I guess."

            That evening, as the two men sat in their control room chairs and conversed casually, an exceedingly timid Smith barely stuck his head around the corner from the hatch and peered at them, anxiety written in his features.

            "Am I allowed in, sirs???"

            West glared at him, and Robinson sighed. "Yes. But be very careful what you say."

            As if the idea had not even occurred to him, Smith murmured, "Say? Only...I sincerely apologize; I promise never to say things like that again; please try to forgive me; thank you for sparing me; and goodnight." He shuffled across the control room floor, head down, radiating submissiveness.

            "Smith. Hold on," said Robinson.

            The older man stopped in his tracks, and turned to the two younger men, with a graphically stricken expression.

            "You've been gone all day. You even missed dinner."

            "I was...too afraid...of both of you." He looked from one to the other, trembling.

            "Yet you're here now," West said evenly.

            "I...convinced myself...that I was even more frightened of being out there alone all night. Though...right now...I'm reconsidering that conclusion." He stood shuddering. He eyed them, from one to the other and back, a wild look in his eyes. Then, his eyes rested on West. "You...wanted him to hit me. You...didn't even know what our quarrel was, and yet you wanted him to hurt me."

            "Yes, I did," West confirmed.

            Smith continued to regard him, with emotional hurt in his eyes.

            They watched him for a long moment, and then Robinson said, "Goodnight, Smith."

            "Goodnight, sirs." Smith turned toward the elevator.

            "Smith, wait," West called.

            Smith whirled and froze, horror in his expression. Both brunettes rose in concern. Smith misinterpreted that, cried out, and dropped to the floor, rolling into a ball and sobbing.

            Robinson and West hurried to him and knelt on either side of him.

            "No, no!!! Don't hurt me!! Please!!!"

            West laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We're not. All I wanted to say was, that was a very nice apology you made to John."

            Smith eyed him between concealing fingers. "That's all? You just wanted to say that?? You aren't going to...actually do...anything???"

            "No. That was all."

            Smith lay shivering as he gazed between the two men. "Thank you...for saying that...and for not...doing...anything!" He struggled to rise, and they helped him to his feet. "Thanks!" he repeated breathlessly.

            Robinson and West stared at him as he descended to the lower deck.