<USS Avalon> Back Aboard

"Back Aboard"
By: Lt. First Class Melanie Redgrave
 
It never failed. Whenever Melanie would spend time alone with her mother  she 
always ended up leaving with more stuff then she’d taken with her. London  
was crawling with smalls shops and boutiques that both women loved, not to 
meant 
 Harrods, so it was very easy to spend days shopping. As Melanie made her way 
to  her quarters she almost felt sorry for the poor chaps who’d be bringing 
her  things to her quarters. The bags and boxes of clothes were one thing, but 
when  Melanie had explained to her mother about the odd feeling of being 
displaced in  the office that came with her promotion, Juliana had insisted on 
helping her  find a few things that would make the space Melanie’s own. 
 
Juliana had also insisted on sending a case of the ale that Elijah had  liked 
so much with Melanie to give to him. As she tried to key in her access  code, 
arms quite full with the packages she’d beamed up with, Melanie couldn’t  
help but smile. She still couldn’t believe how much fun she’d had with 
Elijah  
and at the new connection she’d made with Georgia. Over all it had been a 
damn 
 good shoreleave. 
 
Once inside her quarters Melanie sat her bags down and smiled. It felt good  
to be home. Home, that was an odd feeling, to consider this small place on 
this  never in one place to long ship home, but she liked it. 
 
After placing the case of ale on her small dinning table, Melanie hadn’t  
trusted the yeomen with it, she walked over to several Harrods bags and started 
 
looking through them. There was an old out of date Terrain holiday coming up 
and  she’d picked up a few things for a few people on board. She picked up 
one 
of the  gift boxes, and  opened it. Inside was a blue cashmere sweater. The 
couple  of times she’d been in sick bay, Melanie had noticed it was rather 
cold 
in  there, so she’d picked up the sweater for Georgia. It would match her 
medical  blue uniform perfectly and Melanie hoped she’d like it. She wasn’t 
even 
sure if  Georgia or Elijah for that matter celebrated the holiday but Melanie 
didn’t  care. She liked giving people she cared about gifts no matter what 
time of year  it was.
 
Once she’d put the boxes and bags away, Melanie started unpacking her  travel 
bag. The first thing she did was to put the old teddy bear Georgia had  given 
her, on her bed right next to another old bear. A sad little smile pulled  on 
Melanie’s lips as she looked at the bears, one she’d grown up with, the 
other  her first fuzzy friend and one hell of a weapon against big sisters. Her 
smile  began to brighten as she thought about how it felt so right to have both 
parts  of her together. 
 
Her door chime rang out, bringing Melanie out of her thoughts. She looked  
oddly in the direction of her door and then down at her watch. Elijah would be  
on duty, she wasn’t sure if Georgia was back from shoreleave yet, so she had 
no  idea who was at the door. 
 
There was a young man in the cream colors of unlisted crewmen who worked  all 
over the ship in different duties standing on the other side of her door,  
and he was holding the most amazing bundle of yellow roses with sunset orange  
trimmed petals that Melanie had ever seen. 
 
“Lieutenant First Class Melanie Redgrave?” He asked.
 
Melanie nodded and the man handed her the bundle. Melanie took the flowers  
and cradled them in her arms as she looked for a card. She plucked the card out 
 from the mass of heavenly scented flowers after placing them on her table. 
 
The card simply read, "Just thinking about you."
 
It was just to sweet and the simple gesture made her feel all warm and  fuzzy 
inside which made her giggle. As she set about looking for vase to put the  
roses in, Melanie laughed. “He’s turned me into a giggling school girl.” 
 
Melanie put all but three of the roses into a vase and then set the vase on  
her coffee table. The other three she’d take to her office and put them in a  
vase on her desk, but first she needed to find a certain country boy and thank 
 him for thoughtfulness.

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