PLOT- JL | Cmdr Rinehart, Lt Kerenal, Kiv'Watt - "When The Bough breaks PT II"

Posted on Sat Aug 29th, 2015 @ 8:00am by Commander Tierney Rinehart & Lieutenant Kerenal

1,639 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Agua Mala

"Light as a feather... It's a wonder Stenellis bred women are as strong as they are." Kiv Watt had remarked upon resting his lavender haired charge back on her bed. The guardsmen retinue that had traveled with him, from the palace grounds to the resort where the young Starling was staying, nodded in return. Each one knew well how fierce Stenellis bred, of any gender, could be in battle - but before them lay one with blood tarnished by the likes of a human being. He could see the doubt laced across their faces as they considered her and weighed her against his statement, "What have you been taught?" He hissed, carefully manipulating her body across the bed to look as if she'd fallen there herself. "Never underestimate your foe. You've been lucky while sparring with the Cardassians. A few of you have even had your asses handed to you enough to where you had to use your last resorts to win." The aging warrior snorted and the men behind him knew better than to speak out of turn. Kiv'Watt was a dangerous creature, fair, but dangerous.

"Depart." He growled, standing straight once he was pleased with his handiwork. His hands, haggard and worn, gestured for the men to do as he ordered - leaving into the heat of the afternoon and hoping that the young Commander's heart wouldn't stop under the burden of the toxin that had been introduced to her system not even forty-five minutes before. A final look told him that her coloring seemed normal, her breathing even. With luck, she'd be up and running within an hour or so.

---

It was the ever dreaded duty shift that had torn Kerenal away from the planet finally, no matter how much down time had been authorised, there was still a need for the senior officers to keep an eye on the overall day to day running of the ship and make sure that reports were being filed correctly, this was especially true for the El'Aurian who filled the post of Chief Operations Officer, it was his duty to make sure that the correct people were spending the correct amount of time off duty and that the ship had enough personnel on board to operate correctly.

Stepping through the door of the room that he shared with Tierney, he noted that it seemed to be quite quiet, his jacket was discarded against a chair as he made his way to the bedroom, nudging the door with his elbow as he pulled the undershirt over his head.

The first thing that the Starling could make out were the fathom-deep sound of someone moving. It was a rustling, kind of like sand and shells being stirred up under water; foggy and hardly clear or concise and hardly enough to make her stir. The second thing her slowly waking consciousness was becoming acutely aware of was the raging throb of a headache making its home in the general vicinity of her right temple. Combined they managed to cause a poorly aimed hand to flop squarely onto her face in its attempt to soothe the aching, stabbing pain that was progressively becoming worse the more she head away from the drug induced land of nod.

"Tierney?" Kerenal asked as he released his head from the shirt and saw her lying on the bed with a hand over her face, "What's wrong? Should I call for Medical?" he asked as he rushed to her side and knelt at the edge of the bed.

"Nuh..." She managed to reply and at least thought her head was shaking, her hand being taken along for the ride. He sounded light years away, but the feeling of his body touching the bed told her that reality was much to the contrary of her prior assessment. "wahtameis it?" She slurred, managing to open her eyes at least into slits. Light, she decided, was the new ultimate enemy. Romulans had nothing on it.

"It's morning, I think," Kerenal replied as he brushed the back of his fingers along her forehead, she didn't feel her usual self and it was very unlikely for her to get into this condition, "What happened, Tierney?"

"Dunno." For the most part, Keenal's hand blocked the light - something she was instantly thankful for. "I think I ate a cookie." Her brow furrowed as she tried, through the throbbing in her skull, to remember. The Empress, her mother, things that didn't seem like they should go together, all seemed to be spun in some horrible macabre dream. "Yeah... A cookie... Thing." A scone. But the word 'scone' didn't want to readily avail itself to her ailing brain as it worked, tediously, to come on-line.

"Who were you with?" the El-Aurian asked as he thumbed around his belt for his tricorder, he could at least take some basic diagnostic readings, "Was there any alcohol?"

Torture. He was trying to torture her. She was sure of it with the first few beeps of the tricorder trying to rip through her ear drums. Tierney groaned and half-heartedly flailed; a motion that sent her hand sliding from her face and onto the mattress beneath her where it met the edge and unceremoniously fell limp off the side of the bed. "No alcohol." She whined, not unlike a child as she wracked her brain for the other answer. "Empress..." She spoke out loud, "The Commodore, Cardassian guy, Karim..." She took a breath and screwed her face up in deeper thought, "The Princess, don't ask me her name right now, and yeah... Them. Until the Empress wanted a private chat." Proud of herself, she nodded.

The El'Aurian nodded as he noted a few unusual things on his scans, the tricorder was pocketed and he took one of her hands softly, stroking his thumb against the flat of her palm, "What happened after the private chat?"

"This." She replied, allowing her eyes to close again and seemingly content to simply lay there and focus on the sensation of his touch. "I can't remember anything in between."

"And all you can think having was a cookie... thing?" he asked as he rocked back onto his heels and bought himself into a sitting position, slightly more comfortable as he comforted her, "You appear to have a hang over, it's what happens when Human's drink alcohol in large quantities, real alcohol."

"Cookie thing." She repeated and nodded, a movement she soon regretted and announced that regret with the sound of a groan. If it was the cookie thing that had done her in, it would be the last biscuit-like treat she'd ever consume. It hardly seemed a plausible possibility, however. A slender finger rose to somehow find his lips, albeit after meeting his cheek, chin, and nose before finally correctly resting on one of her more favored portions of his anatomy. "No alcohol. Drank with... Uhhh..." Her nose wrinkled trying to remember the Andorian woman's name, "Shit... I can't remember her name.... But yeah... Drank with her once... Wasn't a good outcome. Was... Sucks."

"Do you remember anything of what you two talked about while eating these things?" Kerenal asked as he ran his hand up to the one she had touched him with, his hands wrapping around her fingers and placing a soft kiss on her knuckles.

"No. That's where it gets fuzzy." Tierney sighed and reopened her eyes to peer at him. Always tender, Kerenal had once again managed to turn a crappy situation into one far more tolerable. "Y'know... I love you. I love you a lot." She grinned.

"I love you too," the El'Aurian replied as a smile spread across his lips at her reply, he leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her forehead, "Perhaps we need to talk with the Empress, we need to know what happened to you."

The Starling's head wobbled in painful agreement - at that point she'd have likely agreed to anything if she thought it would make the uncomfortable sensation of vulnerability, and other nasty owies, go away. And then it struck her... Something the Andorian had said - or was it the Orion that had run off when the Figaro was compromised by Vokar? Regardless, one of them had made the comment about the perfect cure for headaches and 'hangovers', and it had been at the expense of her great embarrassment. Her cheeks had quickly gone from pink to tomato red, but the advise stuck with her, hidden in the back of her mind until that very moment. Her fingers pulled free of Kerenal's grasp only to find his bare chest; hardly any leverage to be found on the smooth expanse of warmth. "Sure," She finally vocalized as she switched gears and instead reached for his chin, clasping it between her thumb and forefinger in a crude and highly ineffective hold, should he have wanted to escape it, "but right now you 'mere and make me feel better."

"I think you need to rest this off," Kerenal replied as he kissed her softly and moved himself up onto the bed, re-positioning her gently to cradle her head against his chest, "When you're recovered, we'll work out what happened."

"But..." She protested, forced to release him from her feeble grasp - though could hardly complain when rewarded for her efforts with a kiss, "Your sooo... Sooo..." The word failed to leave her lips in favor of the warmth and stability the distinct combination of Kerenal and sleep beckoned her with. 'Resting this off' suddenly became a far better alternative than what either Fabla or Zhyalla had teasingly told her about. Yeah... Sleep.


--


Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence / Second Officer
USS ENTERPRISE, NCC 1701-F

&

Lieutenant Kerenal
Chief Operation's Officer
USS ENTERPRISE, NCC 1701-F

&


Kiv'Watt
apb October
Royal Guard
Stenellian Ascendancy

 

RSS Feed