After the tense encounter in the kitchen area, Jimmy left Anya alone for the entire day. A much welcomed change of pace. She kept to herself in the medical bay, finishing up any remaining paperwork.
But even when he was nowhere near her, Anya was still plagued with thoughts of the co-pilot's actions. 'He eventually let me leave...' she thought to herself, mindlessly scribbling away in her notepad. 'It wasn't like he forced me to do anything. He just... couldn't keep his hands to himself.'
Curly was friends with him. Curly wouldn't be friends with someone like that. Curly was a good man. She trusted his judgement.
She was just overreacting.
Anya remembered a key piece of dialogue that Jimmy shared with her yesterday. He revealed that he was in prison at one time. For what it was, she had no clue. But a sinking feeling in her gut told her that the answer was all too obvious.
'There's no way Pony Express would hire a sex offender, right?' Anya thought to herself. 'That would be insane. There's no way.' She kept trying to convince herself, but nothing was adding up.
Unable to ignore the feeling any further, Anya turned to the records she had on file. The complete medical history of each crew member at her disposal. Alongside that, their personal and professional history as well. Anya never considered it a priority to read beyond the crew's health, but now she felt the need to research Jimmy out of caution.
She pulled up his file, flipping all the way to the back. Using her finger to trace along the lines, she was finally able to locate Jimmy's incarceration record. He was in prison for 5 years before being released early due to overcrowding. His specific crime wasn't listed, but Anya had a feeling she could guess what it was.
She tried to remember any other details Jimmy offered her during the previous evaluations she had with him. Including yesterday, she had evaluated him a total of three times. Throughout the rest of their journey, she would have to do it again seven more times. The thought of it caused her stomach to knot.
Anya remembered the first time she ever sat down to do an evaluation with Jimmy. It was when they were only days into their journey. His demeanor wasn't much different back then. He was standoffish, but not as outwardly cruel as he had become over time.
She tried to recall what he said to her all those months ago.
~~~
"Your name is James, correct?" Anya asked as he entered her office. "It's nice to meet you. My name is An-"
"Jimmy." He interrupted her, staring Anya down. He had an expression that Anya found hard to read.
"Sorry, Jimmy." Anya corrected herself, a bit flustered by his sudden interruption to her routine introduction. "My name is nice to m- I mean. I'm Anya."
"Right." Jimmy looked around her office with disinterest. "So, what was the point of this again?"
"We do routine evaluations to monitor the mental health of the employees. Standard procedure." Anya explained. "You can also use this as an opportunity to share anything you'd like. Talk about yourself, vent if you have any worries about the trip, or-"
"I don't like sharing details about my personal life." Jimmy shook his head. "I'd actually prefer it if we kept this brief."
"That's completely fine!" Anya said in a placating tone. "I'll just stick to the basics so we can move this along smoothly."
"Thanks. 'Preciate it." Jimmy finally took his seat opposite of Anya, her desk the only thing separating them.
"So, Jimmy, how have you been holding up so far?" Anya asked. At this point in time, she didn't have a problem making eye contact with him. She was able to study his features and take in his presence. She knew he was the same age as Curly, but he looked much older.
"Doing fine." He shrugged. "No complaints just yet."
"From your files, I can see it's your second time on a spaceship. Are you adjusting well?"
"Yep."
"Good, good. Usually newcomers suffer disorientation the first few days." Anya recorded Jimmy's response in her booklet. "But the jet lag when you return to Earth is what you really need to watch out for."
Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Oh, sounds wonderful."
"Thankfully we have a while before that rolls around, though." Anya chuckled. "You have plenty of time to prepare."
"Mmhm." Jimmy murmured in response.
Anya moved onto her next question. "So, I know you're friends with the captain. How have you been getting along with everyone else?"
"Everyone else? There's only two other people." Jimmy teased her, in what seemed like a lighthearted manner. "But yeah, they seem fine. Swansea is competent. Daisuke is... pleasant to be around, at least."
"He definitely makes game night entertaining, I'll say that." Anya smiled. "Any other-"
"What about you?" Jimmy interrupted her once again.
"Huh?" Anya put her pen down. "What do you mean?"
"How do you feel, being on this ship?" Jimmy asked. "Being around only men, I mean."
"I don't feel any different than I would if the crew was full of women." Anya lied. "As long as everyone is healthy and in the right state of mind, that's all I'm concerned about." Anya told the truth.
Jimmy hummed. "Nice to know we're in capable, unbiased hands." He smirked right at her. "If I'm ever in need of a full body physical, I like knowing I have a dependable doctor to help with it."
Anya laughed shyly. "Oh, I'm not a doctor. A nurse, actually."
"Ah." Jimmy's smirk didn't fade. "Over a year on a fuckin' freight ship, you'd think we'd have an actual doctor on hand." He shook his head and sighed. "And you're doing this evaluation for what, our mental health?" He snickered, voice raising an octave from the sheer absurdity of it all.
Anya was taken aback by the sudden rudeness. "I can assure you, Jimmy. I'm qualified to take care of you and everyone else. I wouldn't have gotten the job if I wasn't ready for it."
"Is that so?" Jimmy hunched over in his chair, leering over Anya with ill intent. "Pony Express vets all their applicants and only accepts the finest society has to offer, am I right?" He got much closer to her than necessary. She could smell his unwashed breath.
Anya wasn't sure how to reply. She didn't experience any kind of vetting or background check. Jimmy most likely didn't either. She shifted awkwardly in her seat, eyes glued to the mess of paperwork on her desk.
"Relax." Jimmy stated as if it were a command. "I'm just messing with you."
"I understand. But I personally don't really find that kind of commentary amusing." Was all Anya managed to say.
"I'll say this for your own benefit. You can't afford to be so sensitive. Especially in this line of work." Jimmy leaned in over her desk and patted her on the shoulder with a sense of over-familiarity. Anya flinched.
He then stood up, adjusting his coveralls by fiddling with his waistband. "It was a pleasure meeting with you today, nurse. But I should get going. There are much more important things I need to attend to."
"W-wait, we aren't done yet." Anya tried to stop him from leaving. "We still need to-"
"My mental state is perfectly stable, sweetheart. There's nothing here for you to psychoanalyze." Jimmy pointed towards his head. "I promise, you aren't missing out on anything." He waved off her concerns flippantly. "I'll see you later if I get a paper cut or some shit."
With that, Jimmy trudged out of her office and didn't look back.
