JL| COM Ivanova, Capt Neyes - "Between Sun and Moon"

Posted on Wed Aug 10th, 2016 @ 8:51pm by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova & Captain Landon Neyes

1,894 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Resurgere

"Let's elope." Landon said suddenly, a stupid smile plastered across his face as he looked at Rochelle from across the breakfast table. His eggs and toast were half-eaten, the baby was sucking down the second bottle of the morning in his lap - adding to the picture of a man stuck in premeditated, nerve-wracking, repose.

The sound of a plastic PADD slipping from the woman's hand punctuated the request and killed the silence that chose to run rampant between them. She should have known there was something on his mind. His lack of appetite and the way his coffee had gone cold and untouched were dead give-aways numbers one and two that his thoughts were running away from him, deep and wild as they often were. "Like... Right now?" Rochelle asked finally, her fingers reaching to pull her reading glasses away from their perch on the bridge of her nose.

The thought had been stirring within Landon for a long time now. Reality was a cruel mistress, and they both knew there would be little time in their schedule for any type of formal ceremony with room for all their friends and family. If they wanted to tie the knot, it would be hard, fast, and just the two of them, with a couple witnesses for legality's sake, in a slapdash union for the rest of their lives. Maybe asking her to marry him over the breakfast table broke with his usual method of extravagant displays of love and romanticism, but he was holding their baby. At some point the simplicity started to look more attractive, especially given how often they seemed to face life-threatening peril.

"Yes, right now." He said, lifting Vaan up so the two boys were face-to-face. "What do you think? Should mommy marry me? Huh? Would you like that? Because I would." The baby smiled his big, gummy smile.

"Right this very second, now?" The redhead asked incredulously, a shy girlish smile slowly overtaking and enveloping the details of her pretty face. So much had gone unnoticed in the days leading up to the launch of the Vindicator as it was set to occur in under forty-eight hours. Reports and orders had come streaming through, stealing her away from what mattered most; the two leading men in her life. A nervous hand folded the arms of her glasses in and set them against the kitchen table only to retreat to the lapels of her robe, tugging it closer to her. It didn't take a psychologist to see that she was considering a quick change, chalking the thigh length silk up to being wildly inappropriate for anywhere but the sanctity of their quarters - much less at a wedding of any format aside from maybe Betazoid. That was what she did, though, stress the tiny details instead of looking at the greater picture. That was where Landon came in, sorting her out and keeping her eyes open wide enough to see the forest for the trees. Javaan squeaked, still smiling his wide toothless baby smile, his eyes squinting and his little arms flailing as he picked up on his parents' excitement and nervous energy. It was enough fuel to kill the shyness from his mother's smile, allowing it to blossom and bloom across her features in its wild entirety, "because mommy would marry daddy right this very second if that's what he's implying."

One corner of Landon's mouth pulled upward as he looked from their son to Rochelle. "Computer. Is Vindicator's holodeck two currently available?"

"Holodecks are currently not due to activate until this vessel has launched." The stoic computer voice responded.

Landon made a gesture to her massive armoire in their room, indicating Rochelle should get changed. He knew she had a dress she'd been wanting to save for something special, but there wasn't much in sight aside from formal dress uniforms. They'd lived through his appearance at the Officer's Ball and then the Ascendancy summit meeting with Tr'Bak and it was a miracle she'd managed to scrounge up yet another stunning gown. What he also knew was that she was already practically ready to get her day underway, and if they left now they could get in before her schedule demanded her elsewhere. Dressing himself was simply a matter of putting on his formal Trill getup. It was simple enough, like his people's sense of life. The sound of the woman's chair skittering backwards as she got up was evidence enough that she was of the same mind and he was quick to stand up to follow her in. "Activate holodeck two and prepare program Neyes Alpha twenty four." He carefully set Vaan in his highchair, then ran up behind Rochelle as she browsed her daunting selection of attire. Taking her left hand in his right, he gingerly pulled her around to face him. Despite the excitement of his suggestion, and the feeling she was more than willing to go along with his crazy idea, he still felt like there was more to be done than just going out and eloping.

With her fingers entwined with his, he bent to one knee.

A pair of jeans was tugged from her fingers, chasing her away from trying to sort through her haphazardly arranged civilian wardrobe. Rochelle found herself raising an eyebrow and quietly hoping Landon wasn't about to change his mind or inform her that he'd only been kidding and proposing a what if scenario... But as he dropped to one knee it was quickly made apparent that he was making a proposal of an entirely different type and she, for the third time in their romantic history, froze on the spot.

There were so few moments with her he didn't feel as if the ground was going to open up beneath him and swallow him away. From the moment they shared in his runabout, to the observation deck on the Vindicator, there was no place he hadn't found a way to mark with Rochelle's stamp in some way. She was so fully present in his life at all times, he wondered if there would ever be a time when he didn't compare everything to her in some way. He didn't care if she was the last thing he ever saw and life decided to escape him right then and there. Rochelle was the mother of his child, and a radiant being he hadn't dared to control. In many ways it had been the other way around. Whether by some unintended effort or simply her natural state of being, she had managed to tame some of the more radical parts of him, luring them into the comforts of her tempering rationality. She was a wildfire to be sure, but only in the sense she was nearly impossible to contain.

"Rochelle Andreevna Ivanova. There are no words to be said in seven centuries which would make me happier to hear, than if you were to accept my hand in marriage on this day. If you'll have me..." his ice-blue eyes glimmered with the slightest hint of shimmering, joyful tears as he materialized a small wooden box from behind him. It clicked open with a satisfying snap, and revealed the pristine set of ruby and diamond rings inside. Their twin bands curved next to each other, seeming to never really touch as they wound around and ended with the opulent elongated stones of hers, one for each 'end' of the band where his was an equally as elegant eternity setting.

The Trill beamed, his pajama shirt and pants contrasted against the sudden rise in passionate energy between them.

"Will you marry me?" He asked.

Jeans and dresses were quickly forgotten, as was the robe that she'd been nearly ready to shed in exchange for something more appropriate. Her own knees slowly met the teak wood floors beneath her as she lowered herself to him, nodding emphatically. Landon had always been the one thing Rochelle had desired most but had never dare dreamed she'd ever have. From the first time she laid eyes on him he'd been a shining beacon of all things she admired in another person; so easy to love and hard to forget, but forbidden by the laws of fraternization all the same. Cupcakes and snowflakes, smiles and subtle touches had all been the undoing of her resolve. She'd fallen in love with him in spite of everything screaming at her not to, and when he'd vanished so much of her had vanished with him. When he was returned to them, to her, one thing became brutally apparent beyond all else; while Rochelle would have eagerly died for him, he'd lived for her.

"Yes, I'll marry you." Rochelle hummed her reply, sliding her fingers from his grasp and looping her arms around his neck. If it was a dream, she didn't want to wake up. She wanted to be allowed to live forever right there in that moment knowing that all of their strife, all of their pain, and shortcomings hadn't been in vain. They'd survived, and more than that, they'd triumphed even in the face of such horrific absurdity and adversity. "I love you," She said with more certainty than she'd ever given any number of things, her lips coming to press upon his forehead. The words seemed redundant, but they needed to be said, "more than the stars, more than this ship, more than the name Vindicator. I love them because they brought me you, but I love you more than anything and everything, Landon Neyes." She added, rocking back to sit on her calves in order to look at him, her hands sliding back to cradle his jaw, thumbs stroking his cheeks as she studied his eyes, "I want you to know that, to believe it. That you and Javaan are my entire life above and beyond Starfleet and the Federation."

"I know." He smiled. The ring, while beautiful, was simply something for them. He had already presented her with an engagement ring in the months past, and this one would occupy a similar space next to it in their quarters while she was on duty. It was merely a symbol of what they carried with them inside. Standing, he kept his eyes locked on her until they met in a gentle kiss. The urge to simply lock it in had hung like an unspoken weight for all that time, and this was more or less the relief and happiness they both had held off on for some reason. Fear maybe? Landon wasn't sure of anything except Rochelle at this point.

"I'll call Blyx. We'll need an officiant." Neyes said in a blissful whisper, his eyelashes brushing against her as their faces mingled for a moment.

"Yeah... Tristan too... Witness..." Rochelle nodded after their lips had parted and she had followed him back to a standing position. Their noses touched as she did, and his lashes were butterfly soft against her cheek - the tactile stimulation proving without a shadow of a doubt that all of it was real, that it wasn't a dream. "You need clothes, real clothes... So do I." She murmured, stealing another kiss before separating from him completely.


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To Be Continued...
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Commodore Rochelle Ivanova
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

Captain Landon Neyes
Command Liaison
USS VINDICATOR, NX 78213-F

 

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