Personal Log - RAdm Waterhouse & LtCmdr Waterhouse - "Gonna Watch You Grow"

Posted on Wed Aug 20th, 2014 @ 6:25am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse

1,116 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: In the Dark

While she'd been bribing Dani with cookies to forgive her becoming XO, a message had come in from her father asking her to join him for dinner at the diner. She'd found the message after crawling back to her quarters through the Jefferies tubes, short a shirt like Dani had threatened. After quickly changing into a modest dress and putting on the nunchuk earrings he'd given her, Amelia headed for the diner she'd had lunch in with her parents and Rochelle not long after Vindicator arrived at the ship yards. This took longer than she would have liked, as she hadn't actually paid attention where it was the previous time, because she'd been involved in conversation, and with how new it was and how quickly it'd popped up, it didn't have much outside to identify it yet.

She did eventually find it, and saw her father had already claimed a booth in a back corner. As she approached, he slid out of the booth to give her a hug, and over his shoulder, she noticed a hard bound book with a lime green bow tied around it sitting on the table.

"I hear congrats are in order again," Corey said as they both slid into the booth, and Amelia snorted.

"How'd you find out already?" she returned with a sigh and a half smile.

"How do I ever? Paperwork," he returned with a laugh. He slid the book across the table. "From your mother."

"If you tell me you have a search algorithm trolling the fleet database constantly looking for my name..." Amelia muttered, pushing the bow aside on the book to read the title. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Corey coughed, causing Amelia to look up sharply. "Seriously Daddy?"

"Not just your name, the rest of the family too... anything I have clearance for." Corey's eyes dropped to the menu. "Actually, a little phoenix told me first this time, though I waited for the database to confirm she'd told you." Amelia just shook her head.

"Is that how you avoided being offered XO on that ship, when you got you and Mama assigned to Utopia Planitia instead?" Amelia asked, turning to the menu herself. She could only assume that her father was referring to Rochelle when he said little phoenix.

"I'd thought you'd been listening in on that fight," he returned, and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Putting your mother directly within my chain of command would have been bad." Amelia nodded. "It's a difficult position, and some can juggle it. I know that your mother and I couldn't."

"You love Mama too much?"

"I can't think straight when she's involved, and want to do nothing but protect her. She will do anything to protect me. The ship, and the crew as a whole, must come first..." He shook his head. A waiter walked up to take their orders, and both ordered burgers and malts. "Have you heard from your brother lately?" Corey asked as the waiter left.

Amelia shook her head. "I was going to reach out to him for a tea care package from Gran'dad, I've been going through a lot lately because of what Rochelle's been through."

"Reach out to Mara, I think she's still got a line running to Earth," Corey suggested. "And keep an ear open for your brother, he said he was going to meet your mother and I at the shipyards, but I haven't heard anything yet."

"Of course, I'll let you know the moment I hear anything, if I do. Isn't it normal for him to disappear like this though? With his little flock of pirates, pastafarians, or whatever he calls them?"

"And if we hadn't been thrown into a civil war, with him swanning on and off Earth, and being related to three Starfleet officers..." Corey shook his head. "He's probably fine, but I can't help but worry, especially since he never did take to your mother's guidance for self defense."

"If you want, I'll see if I can pull some Intel strings, have them keep an ear open for him..." Amelia offered. Corey smiled.

"Just don't tell your mother, you know how she is about Intel."

"I'm surprised she still talks to me."

"She doesn't want to be like her mother. She asks me to defend your career choice for you, so she doesn't get in that fight with you." Corey laughed at this, and Amelia shook her head, even as she couldn't help giggling.

"I am not going to fault her methods if it keeps our relationship solid," Amelia insisted. "It doesn't cause you two to fight, does it?"

"Nothing I can't handle. Lately it's all been about what we're going to do now, while we're waiting on orders. I figure we fight about it long enough, it won't matter in the end, as the fleet will decide for us what we're doing." He sighed softly. "Are you excited about becoming XO?"

"No," Amelia answered quickly, her eyes darting around to make sure she didn't see anyone she recognized from the crew within listening distance. "Just before this, I was bribing Dani with cookies and carefully, carefully, talking to her to make sure I wasn't losing my friend as a result," Amelia explained cradling her forehead in her hand with her elbow on the table. "I don't think she gets that this isn't a position you say no to, unless you're okay with marooning your career."

"I think it's that she doesn't care, since she doesn't believe she has a career. She doesn't want one, at the very least," Corey returned. "You probably could have gotten away with just staying a field agent with Intel without killing your career."

"I can't ditch Rochelle," Amelia insisted, and Corey smiled. "I volunteered for the assignment on Vindicator because she was there, and she asked me to be her XO. It does mean I have to ditch the ghost uniform... I liked the gray."

"It's not like you had to wear that uniform much anyways," Corey objected, and Amelia laughed.

"I've been living in it since arriving on Vindi. Do you have any idea how quickly people get stuff done when a gray uniform shows up... just from the shock of an intel officer in uniform? I think it scares them, so they just want to make me go away quickly." She giggled at this and Corey shook his head with a proud smile.

"You're going to do just fine," he insisted as the waiter returned with their dinner.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Rear Admiral Corey Waterhouse
Head of Fighter Design Team
In Transition

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator

 

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