[ussgeorgetown] "All of You" by Sergeant Major Vincent Aigremont, Lieutenant Aileas McKay and 5 of 12
- From: Elizabeth Bethell <ejbethell@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: ussgeorgetown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 15:42:23 +0100
All of You
*by Sergeant Major Vincent Aigremont, Lieutenant Aileas McKay and 5 of 12*
Groaning again, Vincent rolled over, something digging into his back for the
millionth time that night. He sat up, prodded his bedroll to find the
offending lump and then lay back down just to stare at the black ceiling.
"Lights," 5 of 12 said as she marched into the Science labs. The place
smelled wrong. She stopped and scanned the area, noting all the
discrepancies. She could trace each member of her department as they moved
around on their last shift. For some strange reason, there appeared to be an
unexplainably large amount of Sergeant Major Aigremont's bio-signature
around the place. Stepping around a bench, she kicked something which went
umph.
5 of 12 looked down at the prone form of her chief forensics officer.
"Sergeant Major, what are you doing on the floor?"
"Sleeping, ma'am," he said with a horizontal shrug. "Or at least trying to."
"Is there a problem with your quarters?" A tiny smile twitched at her mouth
as she offered him her hand and lifted him to his feet.
"Non, ma'am, I am sure they are very..." He grunted as he rolled his stiff
shoulders. "...comfortable. I just can't access them."
Her eyebrows raised as the smile broadened. "If there is something wrong
with the locks, you have to inform Engineering and Security, they will sort
you something out."
"No, ma'am, there's nothing wrong with the locks, my wife assures me that
they function perfectly adequately." His face darkened as he trudged to the
break room to get coffee and breakfast. "That is, from the other side of the
locked door which I cannot enter."
"She locked you out?" Suddenly, the whole situation became unbearably funny
and she started to giggle.
"Oui, ma'am, she locked me out. I could easily say it is your fault, you and
your man... except..." A look of wistful romance fluttered over his face as
he sipped his drink. "Except the two of you are so very beautiful together."
5 of 12 felt the colour in her cheeks rise so she turned to the replicator
to order Aileas some tea. "Why is it our fault?"
"Because you *are* so beautiful together." He waved his hands in a
fluttering motion. "She is angry because... well, much of the time, she is
just angry these days. But at the moment, she disapproves of your
relationship with Chief Petty Officer Ecitsuj."
"We know," Aileas growled, sipping her strong, sweet tea. "She told us.
Doesn't mince her words, your wife, does she?"
"Non, her bluntness can be violent at times." He sighed, sinking into the
cushioned chair. "It does not help that the Commander's solution was to
promote your man. In her eyes, your are both deserving of disciplinary
action but now that it has not been forthcoming, she is bitter." He threw up
his hands, slopping coffee on his already bedraggled uniform. "That woman is
always bitter. Bitter and angry and no joy anymore. She used to be..."
Flopping his head back, he sighed. "Oh how lovely, she used to be. I loved
her so much, we were so happy. We would dance, stepping out to each others'
rhythm. So beautiful, like you and your man. But... ah, but, there always
has to be, doesn't there?"
Aileas came to perch on a chair near him, watching the man's grief and
sorrow play out. "What happened?" she asked quietly.
He snorted softly. "She gave up her career to be with me. We thought, she
and I, that love could conquer all things. What fools. It can conquer rank
and position and standing, but it can't overcome bitter resentment that
builds in someone's heart over years of being without the one thing that
they desperately wanted."
"She was an officer?"
"Oui," he muttered. "Well, a cadet at the Academy. And then she fell in love
with an enlisted marine. Her father, God curse him, made her choose, he
forced her to tear herself in two. I was going to quit, buy myself out of
service. I was a young scientist working with some of the greatest minds in
the Corps but for her I would have left it all." He laughed suddenly. "You
know, I've always marveled at the thought that the Marine Corps has a
science division. We are nowhere near as prestigious as Starfleet's but then
our work doesn't quite cover the same areas, does it?"
"No," she said, thinking it was better to simply agree rather than get into
the fact that she had no idea what Vincent did other than forensics. *Probably
better not to ask*, she thought. She watched as his face slipped back into
its previous melancholy. "What happened?"
"She left, of course." Blowing out a frustrated breath, he stared at the
ceiling, losing himself in the memory of his wife's turmoil at the time.
"There was nothing that I could do or say to convince her to stay in the
'Fleet. To her father, the choice was simple. A career or a family. He was a
traditional man, out-dated in this day and age, but that was the way he had
been brought up and that was the way he brought his children up. It
frustrated and confounded me, still does to be honest but there was little
that I could do about it. And so she left Starfleet to be with me. That
should be a happy ending, non?"
Aileas simply nodded, aware that he needed to speak it out.
"It was not even close. We were in love, devoted to each other. We wanted to
start a family, so we did. We tried and tried and finally, on one blessed
day, she called me to tell me she was pregnant." Vincent laughed joyfully.
"I was walking on air for the rest of the day, I can tell you. When I got
home, I swept her up in my arms and we danced all night long."
"But I didn't think you had children," Aileas blurted without thinking.
"Non, we do not." He let out a deep breath and downed his coffee as if it
were a shot of whisky. "She carried to term, our beautiful little girl was
born and then..." His voice broke but instead of the tears she expected, he
surged to his feet and threw his cup against the wall. It shattered into
hundreds of pieces, smearing a small patch with the last dregs of his drink.
"We are defective! There is something in me and something in her that just
does not work! When you combine our genetics in a child, there is a ninety
nine point nine to infinity chance that you'll produce a defective child.
And we did. Oh but she was a gem, so small and lovely."
He started to pace violently around the small room, his fists clenched. "She
died. Within a week of being born, her lungs gave out and then her heart and
liver and kidney and... There was nothing they could do, they couldn't keep
up with the malfunctions, they just happened too fast. They tried, God bless
them. They implanted her with new organs, mechanical ones, but her body
rejected and... and she died."
"I'm sorry," was all Aileas could think to say.
"So was I. Elspeth was all for trying again but the doctors told us the odds
of it happening again, the next time most likely hurting her also. I forbade
it. She is my wife, I would not lose her over that. We argued, by heaven, we
have never argued like that since. So bitter, so hurtful. There are times
when I know that she has never forgiven me for saying no. There are times
when I cannot forgive myself. For her, I would die but... Non, I made the
right decision."
"Vincent, I am so sorry," Aileas said as she approached him carefully. He'd
stopped his pacing and was merely standing in the middle of the floor,
staring into space. Her hand brushed his shoulder and he jumped.
"Désolé, je suis très très désolé. I seem to be a little lost..." Staring
wide eyed around him, Vincent started to shake.
"Go home, speak to your wife, take the rest of the day off. If she still
doesn't let you in, try contacting one of the Ops people and getting them to
assign you temporary quarters." Aileas wanted to pull him into a hug, 5 of
12 wished simply to start her work. Both of them pitied him.
"Merci, you have such compassion in you, Lieutenant. Merci." He wandered out
in a daze, thinking he'd try their rooms and then the library.
------------------------------
"I love the looks of you," he crooned, several of the library's patrons
frowning in disapproval at his singing, "the lure of you. I'd love to make a
tour of you: the arms, the eyes, the mouth of you; the east, west, north,
and the south of you. I'd love to gain complete control of you and handle
even the heart and soul of you. So love at least a small percent of me do,
for I love all of you."
Dropping to one knee before Elspeth desk, Vincent carried on. "After
watching your appeal from every angle, there's a big romantic deal I've got
to wangle, for I've fallen for a certain luscious lass and it's not a
passing fancy or a fancy pass."
He stood again, pulling her unresisting hand into his own as he finished
with, "I love the looks of you, the lure of you. I'd love to make quite sure
of you: the arms, the eyes, the mouth of you; the east, west, north, and the
south of you. I'd love to gain complete control of you and handle even the
heart and soul of you. So love at least a small percent of me do, for I love
all of you."
She sighed. "What are you doing here, Vincent?"
"You weren't in our quarters so I came to find you." Pulling her hand up to
brush it over his still unshaven cheek, he stared into her eyes. "Where else
would I be but with the woman I love?"
"Love," she snorted. "You have no concept of it. I've given up everything
for you and when I ask for one little bit of support, you throw it all in my
face." Snatching her hand back from him, Elspeth stormed away deeper into
the bookshelves.
"I... I love you," he whispered to her retreating form. "All of you."
*Note: The lyrics used in this log are taken from the Fred Astaire song: All
of You, as was the title.*
Other related posts:
- » [ussgeorgetown] "All of You" by Sergeant Major Vincent Aigremont, Lieutenant Aileas McKay and 5 of 12
