by Gem Lassiter and Michael Blakeney
90628.00
Hours after Dinner and a Show
Concurrent with Day of Reckoning
-=USS Gauntlet=-
90628.00
Hours after Dinner and a Show
Concurrent with Day of Reckoning
-=USS Gauntlet=-
Gem Lassiter was now entirely certain that she was about to lose her mind.
The Gauntlet had dropped out of Warp inexplicably hours ago, and no one had, for the longest time, seemed to be able to tell her exactly when they'd be capable of initiating the drive again.
It was only after she gave an intense, threatening, and darkly motivational speech that the entire engineering department and the rest of the senior staff would be talking about for years to come-- warning them of potential reassignments and other penalties that they would incur if one perfectly styled hair of Nicholas' head was harmed because they'd arrived late to the scene-- did they truly find the inspiration they needed to work even harder to fix the problem.
Now the drive again hummed deeply with life, and though finally back on the right course, Gem found she was still frozen where she stood. She continued staring out the windows of the Ready Room she'd taken over and set up shop in the moment she'd awoken.
She berated herself.
If only she'd known that the Gauntlet was going to falter as it had, she'd have considered the idea of letting Lair take the Alchemy back to the fight.
Prototype, and if need be, Alchemy Project be damned.
They hadn’t found him yet, and they needed to find him now.
The longer this crisis dragged on, the more she feared for Nicholas' safety.
Reports coming fro the Serendipity had grown increasingly sporadic and each successive one contained less and less actual information. Lassiter knew for a fact that there were things that both Zanh, and O'Sullivan were keeping from her, and she thought to herself that they, too, had better watch their step.
Years of friendship aside, even O’Sullivan may have to suffer the consequences of any bad decisions he may be making now, if those decisions cost the life of her son.
She closed her eyes, as thinking of Nicholas, and the smile that he had so often shown her, returned her to the smile of another man; the one who had fathered him.
-=Flashback; 2357, Current Timeline
Residence of Gemini Lassiter, on Earth=-
Residence of Gemini Lassiter, on Earth=-
Michael Blakeney raised his eyes toward the window. The lids felt weighted with lead, and his vision had long since become bleary. But that was to be expected from a man who hadn't had any useful sleep in well over two days now, standard Earth time.
He glanced over at her.
She was still fast asleep. She'd shifted position and the blanket he'd thrown over her hours before after she’d drifted off slid slowly and artfully from her shoulder.
Her hair, which had long since rebelled against pull of the barrette that held it in place, framed her cheekbones.
She sighed softly, and he hoped that whatever she was dreaming of, that it was something good.
How someone who was so maddeningly combative and frustratingly stubborn when awake could look so innocent and gentle when sleeping, he'd never know.
He wondered if this was a particular sort of alchemy that this one woman possessed, or if it indeed was an ability that existed in many, if not all, of those of the fairer sex.
He wouldn't know.
The fact was, while he'd spent many memorable nights sleeping with women, he hadn't really slept with them, or more to the point, observed them sleep at all. Even the few he remembered having stayed the night in its entirety were still a mystery to him now; he’d always be out cold long before they would.
That being the case, watching one of these feminine creatures sleep now, especially one with which he had not yet engaged in...well...the not sleeping part, fascinated him.
He shook himself free from the sight of her as he realized that time was getting away from them.
If he didn't have a location to start with when she awoke, then she would likely think of committing, if not actually perpetrating, physical harm against his person for having allowed her to fall asleep at all.
They had argued over it.
He had insisted that it was a waste of time and strength for both of them to stay up all night.
She had instantly wanted to go off after his lead, doing the footwork of finding the location of the Tetratinium he'd detected herself, with or without him.
That would have been a waste of time and energy, and one that they couldn't afford. Time was of the essence, that part she had right.
But, Michael had thought, why waste time and energy on footwork when you can let a computer do the same work for you?
The trouble was, the computer he needed to do that work most efficiently was something that she was not supposed to know even existed.
He watched as the location that they sought flashed clearly on the screen before him, and his eyes jolted back to her as she began to stir; the red light from the display reaching her vision somehow even though sleep.
Nothing gets past this one, he thought.
He wondered how long he could keep the facts of his situation from her, and knew that he’d have to really watch his step.
He knew that the clock on that particular battle of wits was running out faster, and ticking louder, than any other deadline that he was currently fighting to beat.
He quickly closed the case of the instrument he held in his hands, concealing the screen inside what looked like a standard TI issue tricorder.
He put it into the pocket of the jacket he'd finally taken off hours ago.
He stood and slowly rose, stretching tight muscles and tired limbs and trying to rouse himself to a more lucid level of functioning.
He glanced over at Gem again. He stepped closer to her, tempted momentarily to smooth back one of the long dark curls that fell against her collarbone and continued down as far as his eye could follow it, nearly to her waist.
Why it bothered him so much that this one hadn't simply crumbled under the power of his charms as the others all had still bothered him. But he hadn't given up just yet.
There may yet be time to learn all there was to know about her after the work was done.
Seconds turned to moments as he continued to stare at her, and finally he realized what he needed to bring him back to a more functional condition.
A very cold shower.
He paused as he walked past the door leading to the balcony. It had rained most of the night, in fact he was certain that it was the sound of the drops falling on the roof above that had lulled her to sleep to begin with.
She'd lost her battle against sleep as she’d been watching her own tricorder process a seemingly endless number of possible coordinates for the item that they sought, but the problem was that hers was limited in ways that his was not.
His tricorder was...special order.
He now had a very narrow search area for them to explore, and the time had come.
The sky was just beginning to flicker with the first hint of daylight; there was still time for them to hit the streets while most of the city fought off the effects of last night's parties in deep, almost death-like Sunday morning slumber.
The sky was, right now, as he'd never seen it.
The clouds that had brought so much rain were completely gone- the atmosphere was completely clear, the ceiling unlimited.
What stopped him was that there was no distinguishable point at which the arrival of the sun could be determined on the horizon.
Instead, the sunrise was purely colorless; and in an instant it seemed that the world awoke and moved from night's concealing darkness to the revealing intensity of day.
Suddenly, it was simply morning.
He moved to the replicator and punched in a few simple commands by hand.
He was loathed to ever dress in such common clothing, but the times demanded it, and so classic black pants and shirt would serve his need of wardrobe well.
She was already dressed, as she had fallen asleep in those same shapeless khakis and the men’s white button down shirt. Though, since wrinkles had appeared in both as she slept in them, he was certain that if she had a spare moment to do it, she would insist in changing into a freshly pressed version of the same exact, and exactly sensible ensemble.
He took his clothes and headed to her shower. Turning the temperature dial downward as far as it would go, he inhaled sharply and muttered a whispered, religiously based diatribe of profanity as the waves instantly seemed to freeze his skin. The shock was definitely enough to wake him and get his mind off of what it had been on as he’d been staring at her before. He stayed in the cold as long as he could tolerate it before he reached quickly back to the controls and gently eased them up to a more pleasant, if not truly warm, setting.
The faint hum of the shower's wave generator as the temperature changed was finally enough to break Gem from her gentle, dreamless sleep.
In an instant she jumped up from the couch where she lay and repeatedly started to curse.
How had she ever let this happen?
He was certainly gone, undoutedly taken the information on the lead and ran off on his own.
He wanted the credit for breaking the case, she was certain of that. After a promotion, maybe; or at the very least, the bragging rights.
It was only after another moment of continuing to condemn her own stupidity for having allowed this to happen while self-directed anger washed away any calm the unwanted rest may have brought that she realized that he was standing directly in front of her.
This time he was the one wearing a towel.
In truth, Michael had no reason whatsoever to put on such a display for her other than the sheer, egotistical pleasure of doing so. Which was of course as good a reason as any. His clothing was quite nearby in the bathroom, he could've easily dressed before he exited it.
That, however, was not how he operated.
Once he knew she was awake, he knew there was more fun to be had.
He swaggered around her in a complete circle to allow her the chance to take him in from every angle and then slowly sauntered to the replicator and ordered two cups of strong, hot coffee.
He approached her again, as she stood there satisfyingly paralyzed with shock just as he'd intended.
Her arm, extended with hand raised in protest, was in perfect position for him to simply give her the mug by the handle and then make as dramatic an exit as his entrance.
"Don't burn your mouth," he warned, as he continued on his way. Her eyes followed him still; she was powerless to stop them.
He grinned broadly from ear to ear; now he really was pleased with himself. He winked at her and added, "It's hot," widening his eyes.
She jumped as the next sound she heard was the closing of the bathroom door.
That was when she got angry.
She set the cup of coffee aside and, with no thought given to her normal morning routine –an elaborate and well thought out plan that was quite detailed and usually followed in order and to the letter according to the inalterable mental checklist she had created years ago-- she rushed after him.
She balled her hand into a fist and pounded on the door. "What the hell did you do, Blakeney? I thought we agreed that we were going to work together. That no one was going to get any sleep until we found what we were looking for!"
He opened the door and poked his head out, a feigned quizzical expression etched into his features. "Why should two of us look when only one of us needed to? I’m surprised at you. As logical as you are, you should instantly have realized how inefficient that would be.”
Gem bristled, and her face reddened. If there was anything she hated as much as she thought she hated this man, it was inefficiency.
“Besides, Gem, you're far too hard on yourself. You'd gone a lot longer without sleep than I had at that point. For you to rest so you’d be on top of your game when we went out into the field was the only logical option. You’d have known that if you hadn’t been so flustered by exhaustion."
“I was not flustered.” She protested, reddening further.
“Yes you were.”
She scoffed.
“Besides, you looked so...content,” he mumbled, much more genuinely as he remembered for an instant of near disbelief the way that she had looked when there were no barriers of responsibility there. “I couldn't bear to wake you."
"Content?" She snarled, as the door closed again. "I looked CONTENT?" She actually stamped her foot in frustration. "My career is hanging by a very thin and fraying thread. I have no idea how to follow the one lead that you found, and I just wasted three hours SLEEPING on the job!"
"Well, I wanted to waste it not sleeping but you said you weren't interested in that either." He opened the door again, just enough to toss his towel out at her. It hit her in the chest and she looked down at it, blinking repeatedly. “That’s the only reason you were able to resist me.” He opined with maddening self-assuredness. “You were simply too tired for the exertion.”
She growled and carried the towel to the laundry hamper in the bedroom before stomping back and continuing to argue with him through the door. "We wasted all night!"
"No, Gemini. We did not." He opened the door, peered out of the narrow opening he’d created once more, and he gave her that infuriating smile again. "You slept, which given how cranky you were, was the most productive use of your time. I kept working, and not ten minutes ago I found exactly what we were looking for."
She jumped back as he swung the door open wide now and appeared, fully dressed except for shoes. He nodded to her. "I was just about to wake you. With a kiss you would’ve remembered for the rest of your life. I’m so sorry you missed it."
Gem snorted.
"Drink your coffee." He gestured toward her discarded beverage with the mug that he held in his hand. "Today is going to be a very busy day."
------
//// Gemini Lassiter
Director,The Alchemy Project
And former TI Agent
and
Lt. Commander Michael Blakeney
Temporal Investigations
//// Gemini Lassiter
Director,The Alchemy Project
And former TI Agent
and
Lt. Commander Michael Blakeney
Temporal Investigations