In The Course Of Human Events

Posted on 01 Aug 2019 @ 12:06am by Captain Jonathan Reynolds & Lieutenant Commander True Keading

Mission: Mission 1 - In the pale moonlight ...
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: MD5 11:00
1343 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

What happened in her quarters was eating at her. True had to do something, she had to make things right between them or she wasn't going to be able to do her job. So there she stood, on the bridge outside the ready room doors of the Captain. But, she was hesitating to press the chime. Finally it was the fear that everyone might be staring at her that motivated her to press it. Then she waited to be allowed entrance.

"Come," Jon looked up. "Oh True," he looked sheepish for a moment. "Okay I haven't gone to the holodeck yet. I will do. Something came up. We got an invitation from someone in the Beta quadrant," he said his eyes sparkling.

Despite the odd cryptic talk about what he assumed were black holes, he was still looking forward to visiting an alien trading post. Well as soon as they worked out what this other object they had been sent to investigate. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm not here to scold you about the holodeck. I just wanted to apologize again, for what happened this morning. I can't believe I behaved that way. It's not like me at all." True didn't know what else to say. She knew better, she was better than this.

"Scold me," Jon joked. "I should hope not." When he looked back up and the rest of her words penetrated his mind he turned serious. "Wow you're really worrying aren't you?" he commented his empathic senses confirming it.

He indicated the chair opposite. "You didn't do anything wrong as far as I am concerned and you don't need to apologise. Do you always put so much on yourself?" he asked curious. "Do we need tea here?"

"Of course I do. It's my job to be impartial, to not get close to anyone under my care and certainly to not make them feel uncomfortable." She huffed out a laugh when he asked about tea. "I'm totally addicted to tea. I always need it." She didn't wait for an invitation to sit down.

Jon replicated two cups of tea and placed them on his desk. "At what point were you not impartial? And everyone on the ships under your care. If you don't let yourself get close to people you're going to be very lonely. You're allowed friends or more than that if you want it on the ship True. Give yourself some slack. That's an order."

She raised her eyebrows at this but didn't reply. Instead she picked up the cup in front of her and breathed in the steam from it. She loved tea, it was a rather unusual addiction she supposed. But it was her constant companion and comfort. "I will try," she finally said. "It's just, I knew you found me attractive and I felt I should have known better than to try something like that."

"Then why do you think you suggested it then?" Jon asked.

"That's a good question. I'm not really sure. It's a tried and true method of getting people to relax but with you I never should have suggested it. I think perhaps I might have been a tiny bit amused by your attraction to me." True closed her eyes, her heart was racing. She could absolutely lose her job over behavior like that.

"Amused," Jon repeated. Leaning back he looked at her wondering if something was going on here. Was it wise. Probably not. Was it crazy and exciting definitely. Did he want to find out more ...... oh yes .....

"Well at least you're not stressing any more," he tried to brush off feeling some disappointment that he was an amusement.

True sighed. "I'm not explaining myself very well. I was amused because well frankly . . . you're only the second man who has ever confessed an attraction to me that didn't run screaming away when they found out I was a counselor. And I might have sort of liked it."

"Well I'm not amused. I would say that's a crime," Jon said. "Only the second. You are clearly not meeting the right blokes."

True blinked at him. She'd been sitting there expecting some gavel to come crashing down on her head in a final judgement of her behavior. Her hands were pressed so tightly around the cup she thought it might break and if it were hot, she couldn't tell. "What?"

Jon grinned inwardly. She was so cute. "You heard me."

She let out the breath she'd not realized she'd been holding. "That's not the response I was expecting." She said quietly. True was certain her face was flushed.

"What were you expecting?" Jon asked. She was going slightly pink in the cheeks and that just made her more adorable. He was however beginning to worry she would break that tea cup if she squeezed it any tighter. "And more importantly did you kind of like it or not?"

"I don't know, anger. More of the same awkward embarassness . . . embarrassedness. Whatever the word is. And yes, I did. Alright. It's so rare. Most days I feel like I could walk through the ship in my birthday suit and no one would take a second glance at me because of the color of uniform I wear." True had no idea where the strength of her voice had come from.

"You're not invisible True," Jon said seriously. His happiness at her liking what he said being replaced with upset that she would ever think she was unnoticeable. "Why would I be angry with you. Everyone has feelings. Also trust me I would definitely notice if you were walking out in the corridors in your birthday suit.

Okay now I'm embarrassed. I'm sat in my ready room thinking about you running around the ship …… you know," he muttered.

True set the cup down on the desk and groaned as she slumped back into the seat, nearly falling on the floor. "I had to use that example." Everything was awkward about the situation. Everything was embarrassing. She didn't think she'd ever had a conversation with someone that had been more so. "So . . . . what are we doing?"

"Well," Jon said getting up and walking round to her. "Hows this sound? You're going to go back to work and not stress about anything other than what to wear for dinner later and I'm going to attempt to actually carry on working and not think about you know ...... And we explore this further tonight? If you want too?"

"Dinner," True repeated. "You know, I do actually have a better grasp of Starfleet standard than this normally. I think could do dinner, yes. Just let me know when and where." She felt better suddenly, perhaps that was because she could now leave his office and go blush somewhere else.

"My quarters. 20:00. Eddie's with his mother for the night." He said reaching a hand out to help her out of the chair. His fingers felt a spark of electric. For all the reasons saying this was a crazy idea, that just confirmed he had to explore this path. "No stressing," he said gently and before he knew what he was doing had pulled her to him and planted a kiss on her lips.

True knew this relationship would be very different from the one she'd had with Gavin. She knew all of the reasons this was a bad idea but when he kissed her, her mind completely quieted for a moment. It was blissful, and that was the reason she was going to tell her brain to shut up. She knew it might not work out, she knew there were lots of things she didn't know about him and he her. But she wanted to find them out, she wanted to be happy again. And in the moment she saw no particular reason why they both shouldn't be.

OFF:

●● Lieutenant True Keading
Chief Counselor
USS Andromeda

●●● Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding Officer
USS Andromeda