<USS Avalon> "Keeping Company"

Keeping Company
By Lieutenant First Class Melanie Redgrave
and Junior Lieutenant Elijah Dareth


It was going to be impossible for Melanie to get any sleep. She couldn?t stop 
thinking about Elijah and the others who were stuck down on deck thirteen. She 
was also having a hell of a hard time getting past the negative influx of 
emotion the Romulan had stirred up in her. She didn?t like feeling so negative, 
so Melanie decided to seek out something, or rather someone, who made her feel 
good. She also figured that he could probably use the change in mood as well. 
So after getting up and slipping on a pair of jeans and a tank top, Melanie 
headed back down to deck thirteen. 



Stepping out of the turbo lift and heading down the hall, Melanie dreaded what 
she was about to see. So many of the others she?d seen before looked really 
bad, and she wasn?t sure that she could handle it if Elijah looked that way. As 
she turned the corner, she sighed in relief when she saw him sitting there, 
back against the wall, eyes closed. He looked paler and tired and down hearted, 
but he looked more alive than the others. As quietly as she could, Melanie slid 
down the wall next to Elijah on the other said of the force field. "Come here 
often handsome?"



He couldn't help but smile at her voice. "First time, actually. What brings a 
beautiful girl like you to a dump like this?" he asked, turning his gaze on 
her. 

"I was sitting all alone in my quarters when I realized my bloke was cooped up 
with way too many women in a small confined area." She teased as she turned her 
head to look at him. 

He smiled at her, grinning a bit crookedly, but then he sobered. "Nice girls, 
but not a one of them holds a candle to you, Mel." 

Melanie blushed. "Such a sweet talker." She looked him over carefully and could 
tell he wasn?t looking as well as he should and it made Melanie?s heart ache. 

"Do you really think it's only sweet talk?" He watched her appraise him, "And 
stop looking at me like I'm delerious, would you?" Eli looked down to check the 
readings on the tri-corder Anna had given him. Same thing, no change. 

Melanie blushed again as she turned her head. "Sorry," she said softly before 
replying to his question. "If it were any other guy, yeah, I?d think it were 
merely sweet talk, but not with you."

"You just don't see it, do you? You don't see the way men look at you..." He 
just let it go, staring at her, falling for her more every day. "You know, I 
was sitting her just about feeling sorry for myself and then you walk down here 
and make me realise just how damned lucky I really am." He longed to reach out 
and touch her, to run his hand down the side of her face. He wanted to feel her 
hair against his cheek and pull her close. 

"I don?t need to notice how other men look at me." Melanie replied. She had to 
keep in mind that she couldn?t touch him. Her hand was still a little odd 
feeling from her last attempt at reaching through the force field. "So what 
else were you thinking about before I showed up?" She asked, hoping to change 
the mood between them to something more relaxed and easy.

"I was daydreaming." 

Leaning her head back, and turning it so she could look at him, Melanie asked, 
"About?"

"The clearing back home," he smiled and almost blushed. 

Melanie smiled as she closed her eyes and pictured the clearing they had ridden 
too. Her smile brightened as she recalled their first kiss. It had still be 
early enough in the season to be warm, but she wondered what it would be like 
now. "What would it be like in winter?"

Sliding into the game, he knew she was distracting him, Eli told her, "I'm not 
sure if it's snowed or not. If it hasn't, all the leaves are gone and the tree 
branches look crisp and sharp, everything is kinda grey looking, but not in a 
bad way. The stream is partially frozen most like and your breath curls away 
from your mouth like smoke." There was a far away look in his eye as he spoke. 

She could picture it in her mind and the scene made Melanie smile. "I love the 
crisp cold of your yank winters, it?s a lot better then our wet, gray and icky 
winters in London. Could we still ride out to your tree?"

"Of course, we could. We'd take Winnie, because Bo doesn't like the cold. That 
is if you don't mind sitting that close." Eli winked at her, to let her know he 
was teasing. Getting that close wasn't something they'd ever talked about or 
gotten near. He didn't want to embarrass her. 

Melanie opened her eyes to look over at Elijah. "I wouldn?t mind." She told him 
as she kept her gaze on him a moment. Then she looked away. "We?d have to take 
hot chocolate and a big blanket with us." 

He read something in that gaze that sent a tiny bit of a thrill racing through 
him, despite not feeling quite well. "You remember the big 'stage rock'?

"The one were you and your sister use to put on scenes." Melanie answered as 
she nodded, "Yeah, I remember." Melanie looked over at Elijah again as she drew 
her legs closer to her chest. Melanie tried not to look as if she wished the 
force field between them were gone, but she really did. The damn thing was 
starting to get on her nerves. 

"It's kind of propped up on another rock in the back that sorta creates like a 
cave like space. It's like part of it is a rock shelf, part of it is the 
ground. In the winter, when it snows, You can huddle under there and build a 
fire." 

"A fire, a blanket and hot chocolate. That sound so good." Melanie said as she 
rested her head against the wall. "It?s sound perfect for cuddling." 

Elijah couldn't help the smile that lit up his face at the thought. "Melanie?" 
he asked quietly and with a bit of an unusual waver to his voice. 

Noting the catch in Elijah?s voice, made Melanie sit forward off the wall a 
little and look at him. Her concern was evident on her face as she looked up at 
him. "What?s the matter Eli?"

"Look at them," he said, nodding to the people on the floor. "Doc said I had it 
too. It's kinda scary, Mel." 

The need to reach out and hold him weighted heavy on Melanie?s chest as she 
looked over at the others. She tried to keep her own fears out of sight, out of 
her eyes, and off her features as she looked back at Elijah. "I know it is, 
Elijah, but things will turn out alright, you?ll see." 

He sighed. "I know. I think. I want to believe that, but it doesn't look good." 
Then he sat back against the wall and looked at her again. "So, tell me more 
about fires and blankets and cuddling," he grinned. 

It wasn?t easy keeping her emotions out of her expressions and it we nearly 
impossible to keep her accent from becoming thick the way it did when she was 
emotional, but Melanie tried hard to smile and go on with their game. "We?d sit 
under the blanket together. It would be over your shoulders and you?d have it 
wrapped around me. I?d rest my head on your shoulder while you told me about 
being a boy and having snow ball fights and making snowmen. Then we?d pour some 
of the cocoa that your mum would make us from a thermos. Maybe it would start 
to snow again. Maybe I?d end up singing to you."

"Thank you, Melanie," he said simply. 

Melanie looked up at him with a funny look and her nose kind of scrunched up in 
a rather cutesy way. "For what?"

"For a hundred different things, but mostly for being you. My mind needed to be 
somewhere else and you took me there." Eli gazed at her again, wishing to tell 
her so much more, but now was not the time or the place. 

A light blush colored her cheeks again as she pressed her hand to the floor 
right next to where Elijah?s was. "I don?t do anything for you that you don?t 
do for me in return, Eli." Melanie smiled warmly at him, wishing she could 
share what she felt because she couldn?t even explain to herself in words. "You 
look tired, hon, you should close your eyes and try to sleep. I?ll stick around 
for a while longer."

"Yeah... probably right, but I promised Anna that I'd watch this tri-corder for 
her. She can't figure out why I have the virus, but I'm not all Andorian on the 
floor there. It hasn't changed though." Staring at her with his heart in his 
eyes, Eli told her, "When I get out of here, I'm going to bug the hell outta 
you because I'm not gonna want to leave your side." 

Melanie laughed lightly. "I don?t think Elissabeth would be very happy with me 
if I kept you from working her security team, but I wouldn?t mind having you 
around." She paused a moment and just looked into his beautiful eyes. Then she 
looked away quickly. "Put the tri-corder where I can see it. I?ll watch it. I?m 
sure Anna didn?t mean for you not to get any sleep." 

Offering her a grateful smile, he slid the tri-corder as near the forcefield as 
he dared and waited for her to nod that she could see it. Elijah laid down 
parallel to the forcefield, about a foot away, which was a close to Melanie as 
he could possibly be. Resting his head on his arms, he couldn't help but smile 
at her. "You're my one in a million, sweetheart," he said, closing his eyes.


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