<USS Avalon> =/\= Night Shift =/\=
- From: KaeraAshayu@xxxxxxx
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 22:12:40 EST
=/\= 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:
- » <USS Avalon> =/\= Night Shift =/\=
