<USS Avalon> =/\= Night Shift =/\=

=/\= Night Shift =/\=
A Joint Log by El-Kainah Ngaio and Siobhan Finkelstein


Siobhan was finally off duty. They had her on rotating shifts, and this one 
had begun partway through Beta shift and carried over into the first part of 
Gamma. She'd spent the last several hours inventorying supplies, and now that 
she was done, she just wanted to sit down and relax. She slogged into the 
Sickbay lounge and plopped down in a chair. In a few minutes, she'd go to the 
dining 
room for a meal, but she needed to unwind first.

El was still in the middle of his shift, but it was time for his break. And 
there wasn't any one coming in at this time of night anyway. He went into the 
lounge and found Siobhan there. He smiled to himself as well as at her.

When the doors opened, Siobhan looked up ... and her eyes widened when she 
saw who it was. "Hi," she managed to say. Her voice even sounded tired.

He could tell she was glad to see him but her fatigue was dampening it a bit. 
"Hi. Looks like they ran ya ragged today." He said. "Need some coffee?" He 
asked as he went to the replicator. 

"Oh, yes ... thank you!" She didn't have to fake enthusiasm, it came right 
through her exhaustion. "I guess I just sat down to get off my feet without 
even 
thinking of getting something to drink," she added.

He ordered two cups of coffee. "That's all right. I'm happy to get one for 
you." He said as he brought it over to her. "I met your roommate earlier." He 
smiled at her. 

"Miriam?" said Siobhan. "She's different, isn't she? Nice, but different." 
She accepted the cup of coffee with a big smile. "Thanks, I think I need this." 
And she took a sip, watching him.

He nodded. "No problem." He returned her smile. "She is nice. What do you 
mean different?"

"Well ... like, there's always music following her around. And she's so quiet 
most of the time. And things seem to happen when she's there..." Siobhan 
shrugged. It was hard to explain.

He nodded. He had thought it was kind of nice actually. "Don't you like 
surprises?" He smiled at her warmly almost playfully. He pulled out a chair 
from 
the table and turned it so he was sitting in front of her.

"Sometimes..." She continued watching him. This playful mood was new, not 
something he had ever shown while working, or even when she'd seen him at a 
distance in the lounge or the gym.

"Only sometimes?" He asked. "You must be the first girl I have met that 
doesn't like surprises." He looked at her a moment. She was pretty, he thought. 
And 
she was quickly becoming more appealing to him. 

"Well ... sometimes!" Siobhan laughed. "I like Miriam. She's just odd. Don't 
you think she's different?" she asked. "Not bad ... just different!" She was 
grinning as she smoothed down her dark hair.

He laughed a bit with her. "Sure." He answered. "But that is what makes us 
people isn't it?" He grinned to her a bit. "You're kind of different too, ya 
know." He teased a bit. He wanted to see how far he could take it with her. But 
he softened it with a big smile.

She giggled. "I don't look like anyone else, hardly, where I come from. I've 
always been different." Her eyes drank him in. "And you're different too, El. 
I just meant... Miriam's not like anyone else I've ever met. She reaches for 
things and they come to her," Siobhan added, her eyes widening a bit as she 
explained what she meant.

He chuckled a bit. "I knew what you meant, Siobhan." He sipped his coffee a 
bit. "She told me a few things about you too." 

He let it hang there like that a bit. Letting her mind play with the idea of 
what Miri had said.

"About me?"

"Sure." He said flatly. "Something wrong with that? I mean what else would 
two people who had just met, talk about other than a common acquaintance." He 
smiled at her. "It was pretty interesting stuff too." He teased again.

She was relaxing now, and her 'sixth sense' was starting to tell her that she 
was being teased. Well, two could play at that game... "I never knew I was so 
fascinating," she drawled.

"I didn't say that you were. I just said that what Miri had told me was 
interesting." He leaned forward a bit and smiled at her. "Would you like to 
know 
what it was?" His voice was nearly a whisper.

"Sure..." Siobhan wasn't sure what to think.

"She said that if I were to ask you out, you would probably say yes." He 
smiled. "Is that true?" He asked.

The girl blinked. "Well ... sure ... but you're already seeing someone..." 
she stammered. And a rather jealous, possessive someone, at that.

He looked down a bit. "Not any more. She wasn't really right for me." He 
cleared his throat a bit. "She was fun, don't get me wrong. But we both 
realized 
that we weren't right for each other."

"Well..." Siobhan hesitated. Was she right for him? Maybe for a while, 
anyway... "I'm not exactly looking for a permanent kind of thing myself," she 
ventured. "But I'd love to go out with you, El."

He blushed a bit. 

There was no one else there; she reached over and started to take his hand, 
but stopped mere centimeters from touching him, leaving the rest up to him.

He took the next step and took her hand. 

Being touched by El was warm and thrilling. Siobhan had never felt anyone so 
clearly before -- the beat of his heart, the pace of his breath, the warm 
throb of his pulse. And the tentative sense of his emotions, a little unsure of 
something that was very important to him. She smiled in a way she hoped was 
reassuring.

He smiled in return. Her hand felt good in his. Better than Dagny's had for 
sure. It didn't feel like it did when he touched Miri but it still felt good. 
Her smile had helped. It made him feel better. 

Siobhan felt her body warming to the touch, falling into his rhythm. That was 
something she just adored about intimacy -- being able to match up with the 
other person and feel like they were truly one, if only for a little while. 
With El, it was stronger than usual. Maybe because he was a telepath. She 
herself 
could never hear thoughts, only feel things, and not always very clearly. 
"So..." she breathed.

"So." He answered with a smile. "Did you eat on your break?"

Her hand still folded into his, she shook her head. "Not really ... just one 
of those big chocolate chip cookies," she replied. "I wasn't very hungry..." 
She wasn't hungry now, either, or rather her mind wasn't. Her body probably 
was, but she wasn't paying attention.

"No wonder you are so tired. You need to eat." He shifted his weight so he 
could stand up out of the chair, but stopped. Part of him didn't want to let go 
of her hand either. He relaxed again and just sat there, and held her hand. 
"We should really eat something." He said quietly.

"Yeah..." she agreed, distractedly. Then grinned again. "Remember when I said 
you were like home, only more so?"

"Sure" He answered as he went to the replicator again. He quickly ordered a 
plate of steamed vegetables and some brown rice and two bowls of soup, before 
he turned back to her and brought the entire meal back over.

The foods were unfamiliar to her, but smelled good. Siobhan smiled at his 
thoughtfulness. "I think I figured out why you feel like home to me," she said 
quietly.

He set them down and joined her at the table. "And why is that?" he asked as 
he sat.

"Well, I think it must be because when I feel your feelings, you know it and 
kind of adapt to me feeling you. Does that make any sense?" She frowned a 
little. It was hard to put into words.

He smiled a bit and put a forkful of rice into his mouth. ~~I'm glad I can 
help you feel less homesick then. ~~ He spoke with his mind allowing himself to 
swallow the food he had started. "Can I ask you a question then?"

She was startled to hear his voice in her mind. No one had ever talked to her 
that way before! She paused with her spoon halfway between the soup and her 
mouth. "Uh ... sure," she replied.

"You weren't expecting me to speak telepathically?" He asked a little 
surprised at her reaction. It startled him out of his other question actually.

"Well... I mean ... nobody ever did before, to me," Siobhan stammered. "It's 
okay, though," she added quickly. "I was just surprised, is all."

He blushed a bit. "No, I apologize. I misinterpreted what you said. I thought 
you had... " His voice trailed off. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that 
to you." 

"It's okay, really," she insisted. "I wish I could do that. It's neat that I 
can hear you that way!" she said with a wide grin. "But myself, I can only 
feel things."

"I am so embarrassed." He admitted. "I should have realized that." His blush 
had deepened. "I just assumed you could communicate like that." 

"It's all right, El." Siobhan tried to project reassurance and acceptance. 
"Maybe I can, with you ... since you can hear that way," she suggested, and 
thought to him, What was your other question?

He chuckled at a random thought of his own before answering her question and 
asking his own. "I have worked with you a little bit, and we had coffee your 
first day. Why didn't you say anything to me before?" He shyly looked back at 
his bowl of rice and took another bite.

"Well..." She spooned up a bit of soup and swallowed it before speaking. "All 
the girls who aren't attached kinda want you ... and I'm nothing special ... 
and you were seeing Dagny..." She blushed at her soup.

"Not at that point, I wasn't." He answered and took a bit of his own soup 
now. "And you are wrong about the other thing too. You are special." He smiled 
a 
bit at her.

"I'm funny-looking," she giggled. "And I have a weird name. At least at 
home."

"You aren't funny looking." He was looking at her seriously. "And the other 
is not a good reason either."

"Well ... anyway..." Siobhan kept blushing. "I guess I didn't want to throw 
myself at you because half the girls on the ship do want to throw themselves at 
you. If we were going to, to do anything together ... it should be because we 
both want to. Don't you think so?"

He nodded. "Absolutely. And I don't mind having to work a little bit to get 
you." He smiled a bit playfully at her. "How's your soup?" He asked bringing 
the conversation to the more mundane.

"It's very good," she replied solemnly. "Not like anything I've ever had 
before. Where does this kind of food come from when it's not being replicated?" 
she asked with a quick grin.
"It is just some Terran vegetables and rice. The soup is my own actually. I 
programmed it into the replicator after I arrived. It is better when I make it 
myself but..." He motioned to the room. "No way to cook here." He smiled at 
her. 

"Oh, I know..." she sighed. "There's a recreational kitchen somewhere, I 
hear, for those of us too low on the totem pole to have kitchen facilities in 
our 
quarters. Or I guess it's possible to program a kitchen in the holodeck." She 
smiled back. "But then the ingredients would be replicated anyway, so you 
might as well just replicate the finished product."

He watched her a moment. Her smile played on her lips. It was a different 
kind of smile today. The grin the other day was much more mischievous. This one 
was ... he wasn't sure but it didn't look like she thought she had gotten away 
with something today. It was still a very pleasant sight.

Perhaps it was just that she was more relaxed, more comfortable with him now. 
Or maybe it was her exhaustion overlaying her natural ebullience. Siobhan ate 
a little more soup, but she really wasn't very hungry, more tired than 
anything. "I should get some sleep," she said reluctantly, stifling a yawn. "I 
go 
back on-shift at some stupid time... 1300 hours, I think. I wish I knew why I 
don't have a set schedule."

He chuckled a bit. "Probably the same reason I have the overnight shift. 
We're new." He turned a moment as he thought he heard Dagny's voice behind him. 
 
It was her, he smiled at her but she just frowned in return and left the room. 
"Hm.... " He started. "I wonder what that was about?" 

He turned back to Siobhan then and joked a bit. "I must not be very good 
company for you then...if you would rather go get some sleep." His smile 
telling 
her that he was joking.

Siobhan's slanted eyes laughed with him. "You'd be better company if you 
weren't on duty..." And then she did yawn, and couldn't suppress it.

"I am off in a few hours." He was disappointed but tried to hide it as best 
he could. "I am off tomorrow though... I have a meeting over breakfast, and 
then I'll get some sleep, but nothing later."

"Well ... if I'm working at 1300, I'd be done around 2100," said Siobhan.

"Did you want to get together then?" he asked.

She blushed again, but grinned and nodded. Yes, she thought to him. I'd like 
that very much.

He heard her in his mind. "Good. I would too." He smiled.

Siobhan privately wondered if being intimate with a telepath would somehow be 
better, or more exciting, or at least more intimate than any of her previous 
encounters. She was going to find out, sooner or later! And even aside from 
being a telepath, El was just so nice. A little shy, but that was okay. She 
grinned even wider. And then yawned again. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm 
just 
tired."

"We can pick up later. You should go get some sleep." He smiled. He hadn't 
eaten much either. And the food was cold now anyway. He wondered if he should 
kiss her. He wanted to, but was it appropriate? He was on duty. He decided that 
it could wait until later. He still wanted to but he wasn't going to initiate 
it here.

Slowly, Siobhan got to her feet. They still held her up, even though they 
protested having to do so. She held out a hand to him, not as if to shake 
hands, 
but only to touch.

He took her hand to help steady her. It felt good. Comforting.

Sensing his feelings of warmth and comfort, Siobhan blushed again. And then 
leaned down and very lightly kissed his forehead, near the temple. "Good 
night," she whispered.

"Good night. Sleep well." He smiled at her. 

His smile warmed her all the way back to her quarters.

Other related posts: