by Michael Blakeney and Gem Lassiter
90602.2130
Following Sympathy for Atlas
=USS Gauntlet=-
90602.2130
Following Sympathy for Atlas
=USS Gauntlet=-
“Damn that woman.” Admiral Lassiter complained to herself, referring to Lair Kellyn as she slammed a closed fist down onto the desktop. “Who the hell does she think she’s dealing with?”
She reached for her badge and considered asking Commander Dillon on the bridge if he could coax any more speed out of the Gauntlet’s engines, but she knew the request was futile. She had already been assured by Dillon, by his chief Engineer, and half a dozen other people that if the Gauntlet was going any faster she’d never reach her destination in one piece.
Gem moved back toward the bed, still feeling groggy from the effects of the sedative, but too concerned to sleep. She wondered what kind of battle they were in for, and just how powerful their foe would prove to be.
She also knew that she had no choice but to allow her mind to continue working through the memories of how Nicholas had come to be who he was; in fact, how Nicholas had come to exist at all.
She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and leaned back into the pillows. She shivered, feeling chilled through just as she had as she waited on the balcony of her apartment that night, watching the street below for any sign that this strange man calling himself Michael Blakeney was going to keep his word and return to discuss his proposed investigation into the attempted assassination of Ambassador Braylan.
-=Flashback, 2357, Current Timeline=-
She enclosed her arms around herself tightly. The long sleeves of her shirt were proving too thin to keep out the unseasonably cold overnight winds blowing around her.
She leaned back against the brick of the building as her eyes focused on the street below. Every time she heard a set of footsteps approaching her heart would speed up, only to slow once again when she saw that the person who had stepped into view was not him.
The breeze was insistently stroking the branches of the trees tonight, making the leaves shudder as if reacting to whispered promises that only they could understand.
Or was it, Gem wondered, that they feared a warning that they were receiving from the night itself? A sign that she too was meant to hear and try to decipher?
Everything about this situation demanded she be on her guard. Not that she was accustomed to really ever letting her guard down; logic and reason dictated that her job was dangerous and that she could never allow herself a moment’s true relaxation. If she did, any such moment of carelessness could prove to be her last.
So she was ever vigilant, always watching, always waiting. For what, she didn’t even know most of the time. But she had decided, the day she first put on that Temporal Investigations uniform that she was going to take the phrase
She wondered why she had never been taught to prepare for dealing with anyone like Michael Blakeney.
She realized she should have known she would never hear him coming, as she jumped, her first indication that he’d returned the feeling of his hand brushing back a stray strand of her hair with his fingertips.
“Dinner is served.” He announced, warmly and gallantly, bowing slightly at the waist. “Unless,” he started, pretending to ponder, “you’d rather go straight for dessert.”
Then without even allowing her a moment to react he’d leant in closer as if to try to kiss her, and Gem ducked beneath his outstretched arm and spun away to an easier place to control.
”Dinner it is then.” He laughed with that same, now familiar roguish smile. “Allow me.”
She could only watch, still trying to regain some sense of her equilibrium he had so easily disrupted, as he almost danced into the kitchen and with a precision that truly annoyed her, seemed to remember from his earlier exploration of the space exactly where everything he could either need or want was located.
In what almost seemed like one long flowing motion he’d set out dishes, obtained serving utensils and began to move the food from the containers he’d brought it in. He plated the steaks and vegetables that came with them and gathered the necessary silverware.
She could do nothing, she found, but allow it and watched his every move with rapt attention from the couch as he indicated she should sit down. It was only sensible as it was her job to watch him, to study him for any advantage she could take, but something in the experience wasn’t what it should be. Her thoughts weren’t as focused as she was used to.
He brought her plate and the glass of wine she still had not touched, smiling to himself as he noted the empty glass on the counter. The aromatic residue it contained betrayed the fact that she had taken a shot of something quite strong for her nerves during his absence.
He’d already rattled her, and that in and of itself was a small victory. Larger ones awaited, though, and he felt a sense of satisfaction in anticipation of the events he was sure would follow.
The hunt was on.
“Here you are,” he inclined his head as he set the meal out before her. “Bon appetite.”
“Thanks.” She said, with what was closer to suspicion than gratitude.
It was clearly not suspicion of the food, as she’d wasted no time in taking up her silverware. Though reluctant to leave what was undoubtedly going to be an interesting display, as she seemed to pick at the food, Blakeney returned to the kitchen to retrieve his own plate.
When he came back, and observed the show that’d played on in his absence, he began to laugh again. He did it softly, knowing she’d not likely respond well to it, but just couldn’t help himself.
It appeared she had started to disassemble each item from its original form, cutting and then arranging the meat, the potato, and the asparagus spears into neat and uniformly sized bites for the most efficient possible consumption.
He took the seat across from the couch and pulled it towards her, sacrificing the closeness of the seat beside her for the chance to work his magic by staring deeply into her eyes. He knew that sometimes it could be a more powerful thing to make a woman wait to be close to him than to be immediately seated beside her, this type especially. Even as he lowered himself he never took his eyes off her, expecting she was to the stage now that she would not be able to take hers off him either.
Perplexingly it seemed he was wrong; her routine was apparently still a stronger force than he was. After she was finished her cutting she set the knife aside and took up the PADD on the table beside her plate, typing away on it with one hand while using her fork to blindly poke at the food as she’d done many nights before.
As she reviewed the notes she’d begun to make so far, she took one bite after another, paying him no mind.
As he watched this he found himself losing that relaxed charm he worked so hard to convey.
One thing that Michael Blakeney couldn’t stand was being ignored.
“You may as well be eating emergency rations, you know, the way that you’re not even bothering to taste that gorgeous filet.” He started to complain, sighing dramatically. “Do you know how difficult it is to find a steak like that at three o’clock in the morning?”
“I’d have been fine with emergency rations.” Gem countered distractedly, barely pausing before she took another bite. She hadn’t realized until she started eating just how famished she really was.
“See, that’s the trouble with you rational types. It’s all work, work, work. No play. Life passes you by a moment at a time and you don’t even look up from your work to notice what you’re missing.” Michael sliced off a hunk of his steak and devoured it, closing his eyes and being sure to sigh contentedly as if it was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
While it may in fact have been one of the best things he’d ever tasted, tonight his mind wasn’t truly on his food. He took a sip of wine next, his gaze still never leaving this woman who seemed determined to convince him that he had no power over her; determined to convince both of them,
“Well someone has to keep their mind on work. Life isn’t fun and games you know.”
“With a philosophy like that, you must be a hell of a lot of fun in bed.” Blakeney was suddenly beginning to wonder, as pretty as she was, if she was worth all the work he was putting into trying to seduce her. His choice of words had been intended to get some type of rise out of her, if he could put her thoughts on one place where she had to have a little passion, then he should at least get some sort of shadow of what that passion was. It could give him a place to aim for.
If there was somewhere he should be aiming then she wasn’t letting him know it. Gem’s eyes didn’t leave the PADD; making him wonder if deep down she really didn’t have any feelings for him to work with; or at least none that she’d so far encountered. Rather, she set her fork down and instead of continuing to eat she simply typed faster and with both hands. It was actually quite deliberate, not that he realized that, she could see this was upsetting him and that gave her control.
“Jonas must’ve been bored to death with you.” Blakeney added with flippant frustration, intending only to think the words, not to speak them aloud.
The look on her face as her eyes and her hands left the PADD and she was suddenly glaring viciously through him told him that he had not imagined it, he had actually spoken the words.
For a woman who prided herself on her ability to make sound decisions, regrets like Jonas really stung.
“He had no complaints when it came to sex, that was the least of our problems.” She coldly insisted, “Not that it’s any of your damned business.”
She hadn’t meant that happen, she shouldn’t be letting him get to her, but it was now very clear while she sat here under his gaze that was exactly what he would continue to do.
Quickly Gem rose from the couch, moved toward a chair across from it, sat down again and continued typing away.
Damn, Michael thought. That, he had not intended to do. Bringing up Jonas was a mistake and he knew it.
In fact if the stories were true, the very last thing that would put her in a romantic mood would be any mention of her Jump partner and now-ex lover.
He was hoping that his mentioning the man could simply be forgotten, it seemed it could not as Gem softly grumbled, “How do you know Jonas anyway?”
“Everyone at the Agency knows Jonas Vox. Or at least, knows his name.”
“Yeah, well I thought I knew everyone at the Agency but I don’t know you.”
“Oh, but you’d like to.” He suddenly remembered that she’d been the one trying to track him down. The charm instantly returned to his voice and he fixed his eyes directly upon her again, abandoning his food for now and standing up.
He moved toward the chair, dropped to a knee beside her, and before she could move away, he leaned so close to her that she could feel his warm breath against her ear. “You’re curious about me, Gemini Lassiter.” His hand moved to the collar of the men’s button down shirt that she wore, and he tugged at it once before letting go. “You’d like to know me much, much better.”
She was curious about him, but not in the way that he flattered himself to think. At least, not that she was willing to admit to him, or to herself.
She shook herself mentally, demanding that she keep her mind on the task at hand and not allow him to distract her.
The fact that he even had the ability to distract her distracted her more than anything else.
“Look. I’m only going to say this once.” Gem turned toward him. The grin on his face was disarming at best and completely incapacitating at worst and so she forced herself to close her eyes so she could finish her thought. “I am not interested in sleeping with you.”
He leaned in closer, and she found herself unable to move, paralyzed as his lips hovered over the skin of her throat.
“Sleeping,” he murmured, “has absolutely nothing to do with it.”
“That’s it!” Sanity prevailed, and she bolted from the chair before he was able to kiss her. “Get out. The only thing you’re interested in investigating here, it seems, is me. Well, sorry to disappoint you, pal, but case closed.”
She hurried toward the front door and pulled it open with one forceful yank. “Get out.”
Lt. Commander Michael Blakeney
Temporal Investigations
And Gemini Lassiter
Director, The Alchemy Project
And former TI Agent
Temporal Investigations
And Gemini Lassiter
Director, The Alchemy Project
And former TI Agent